[EL] ELB News and Commentary 11/14/19

Thu Nov 14 07:37:42 PST 2019

“Why Almost Nobody Will Defend the Iowa Caucuses”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108072>
Posted on November 14, 2019 7:34 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108072> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/13/us/politics/2020-iowa-caucus.html>

In Iowa, fretting about the caucuses is a quadrennial tradition among Democratic and Republican officials alike. But at a time when leading Democrats have made the fight for ballot access, voting rights and diverse representation core principles, their marquee presidential contest offers none of those elements.

The state is more than 90 percent white, rankling officials and activists who say it does not match the party’s diversity elsewhere. The caucuses take place on a Monday night in frigid early February, disenfranchising Iowans who cannot attend because they have to work, have child care obligations, are disabled or are out of state.

The grumbling reached a roar over the last week, amplified by the possibility that Michael R. Bloomberg might enter the Democratic presidential contest<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/us/politics/michael-bloomberg-president-2020.html?module=inline> and bypass the four early states, a strategy that if successful could render Iowa irrelevant for good.

Flashback to my 2012 Slate piece, Kill the Caucuses!<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2012/02/congress-should-kill-the-republican-and-democratic-state-caucuses-and-mandate-primaries-instead.html>
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Posted in political parties<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>, primaries<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=32>

“Next secretary of state wants to get rid of Mississippi’s Jim Crow-era election law”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108070>
Posted on November 14, 2019 7:25 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108070> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Clarion Ledger<https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2019/11/13/mississippi-election-law-change-secretary-of-state-michael-watson/2569302001/>:

Secretary of State-elect Michael Watson says he will push to change Mississippi’s controversial two-part election process for statewide candidates.

“I’m definitely supportive of moving away from the current system,” the Republican state senator told the Clarion Ledger Tuesday as he discussed priorities for his new job that begins next year.

Mississippi’s Jim Crow-era election process requires statewide candidates to clear two hurdles to win office — a majority of the popular vote and a majority of the state’s 122 House districts. If they don’t win both, the winner is decided by the Mississippi House.

The provision was written into Mississippi’s 1890 state constitution to help keep political power in the hands of whites. A federal judge declined to immediately block<https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2019/11/01/mississippi-elections-judge-wont-block-jim-crow-era-law-hood-reeves-governor-race/4122284002/> the election process before last week’s election, though it did not become an issue in the governor’s race as some had worried.

“We’re the only ones that do it (like this), and that’s got to change,” Watson said of the state’s election system, adding he plans to push the Legislature to initiate the change, which would ultimately need to be approved by voters. Most states require only a plurality of votes to decide a winner for governor and other statewide contests.
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Posted in alternative voting systems<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=63>

“Georgia election officials investigate prominent critics”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108068>
Posted on November 13, 2019 6:23 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108068> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Looks like more chicanery<http://www.startribune.com/georgia-election-officials-investigate-prominent-critics/564867112/> from Georgia election officials:

Georgia election officials have opened an investigation into two prominent critics of the state’s new touchscreen voting machines, secretary of state Brad Raffensperger’s office confirmed Wednesday.
Those critics called the investigation an attempt to intimidate detractors of the new machines.
Marilyn Marks, executive director of the nonprofit Coalition for Good Governance, and Richard DeMillo, a cybersecurity expert and Georgia Tech professor, are accused of “interfering with voters by being in unauthorized areas” of voting locations while observing pilot elections conducted on the new machines on Nov. 5.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

Matt Bevin = Matt Bupkis<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108066>
Posted on November 13, 2019 6:15 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108066> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

He’s really got nothing. Watch<https://www.whas11.com/video/news/politics/matt-bevin-speaks-for-first-time-since-election/417-161ab530-d5c3-434b-a236-70c2f0a1b7af>.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>

“Lawsuit could purge 234,000 names from Wisconsin voter rolls”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108064>
Posted on November 13, 2019 1:00 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108064> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP:<https://www.yahoo.com/news/lawsuit-could-deactivate-234-000-111259022.html>

More than 234,000 voters in Wisconsin would be made unable to cast their ballot unless they register again before the next election under a lawsuit filed Wednesday that liberals fear could dampen turnout among Democrats in the 2020 presidential race.
The lawsuit could affect how many voters are able to cast ballots in both the April presidential primary and November 2020 general election in Wisconsin, a key swing state that both sides are targeting. President Donald Trump narrowly won the state by less than 23,000 votes in 2016.
A conservative law firm, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, alleges that the Wisconsin Elections Commission broke the law when it decided to wait up to two years to deactivate voters who may have moved. State law requires voters to respond within 30 days of receiving the October mailing or be deactivated, the lawsuit alleges.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“Appeals court overturns mandate for Texas to implement online voter registration for drivers”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108062>
Posted on November 13, 2019 12:55 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108062> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Texas Tribune:<https://www.texastribune.org/2019/11/13/appeals-court-overturns-court-order-online-voter-registration-texas-dr/?utm_campaign=trib-social-buttons&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social>

A federal appeals court has overturned a previous ruling that could have opened the door to online voter registration in Texas.
In a Wednesday court order, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a federal district judge’s ruling that Texas was violating federal law by failing to register residents to vote when they updated their driver’s licenses online. The panel of three federal judges that considered the case did not clear the state of wrongdoing but instead determined that the three Texas voters who had brought the lawsuit did not have standing to sue.
The case revolved around a portion of federal law, often called the motor voter law, that was designed to ease the voter registration process by requiring states to give residents the opportunity to register to vote at the same time they apply for or renew their driver’s licenses.
The legal dispute came after three Texas voters who moved from one county to another were unable to reregister to vote when they updated their driver’s licenses through the state’s online portal. Although the state follows the law for individuals who renew their driver’s licenses in person, Texas does not allow for online voter registration.

You can find the 5th Circuit’s opinion at this link.<http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/18/18-50428-CV0.pdf>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

All Bluster, and No Evidence So Far, of Irregularities in Kentucky Governor’s Race<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108060>
Posted on November 13, 2019 12:48 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108060> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
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Rick Hasen<https://twitter.com/rickhasen>
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<https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1194718276510568448>

Those claiming massive fraud or irregularities in the Kentucky governor's race had their chance to make their case to the media and public.
It did not go well. At all. https://twitter.com/joesonka/status/1194688664309239808 …<https://t.co/k1iW4WED53>
<https://twitter.com/joesonka/status/1194688664309239808>
Joe Sonka [😐] @joesonka<https://twitter.com/joesonka/status/1194688664309239808>

About to begin in Frankfort.... no sign of Bevin yet.<https://twitter.com/joesonka/status/1194688664309239808>
[View image on Twitter]<https://twitter.com/joesonka/status/1194688664309239808>

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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>

House Administration Committee’s Subcommittee on Elections Releases New Report on Voting Rights, “Voting Rights and Election Administration in the United States of America”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108057>
Posted on November 13, 2019 7:30 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108057> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The report<https://www.scribd.com/document/434819096/SUBCOMMITTEE-ON-ELECTIONS-PREPARED-BY-CHAIRPERSON-MARCIA-L-FUDGE-D-OHIO-REPORT-ON-Voting-Rights-and-Election-Administration-in-the-United-States-of> is based upon numerous field hearings and extensively documents continued problems of voting rights in the United States, especially in jurisdictions formerly covered by section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
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Posted in Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>

--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
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