[EL] ELB News and Commentary 11/27/19

[Rick Hasen]

“House Committee Sues Barr and Ross Over 2020 Census Documents”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108220>
Posted on November 26, 2019 8:37 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108220> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/us/politics/census-barr-ross.html>

The House Oversight and Reform Committee on Tuesday sued William P. Barr, the attorney general, and Wilbur L. Ross Jr., the commerce secretary, for refusing to produce subpoenaed documents regarding President Trump’s failed attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The lawsuit<https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/File%20stamped%20Complaint.pdf>, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, is an escalation of a monthslong dispute<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/12/us/politics/us-census-2020-trump.html> over the panel’s efforts to investigate the Trump administration’s effort to alter the decennial survey to ask 2020 respondents whether they are citizens. The government abandoned that effort after the Supreme Court in June blocked the question<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/us/politics/census-citizenship-question-supreme-court.html> from being added, rejecting the administration’s stated reason for the effort as “contrived.”…

House Democrats have continued to investigate the census matter, arguing that they need to determine whether Congress should enact legislation to prevent the administration from employing similar tactics in the future. Democrats believe that the documents will show that the administration’s stated rationale for collecting the data — to better enforce the Voting Rights Act — was a cover story invented to mask a politically motivated attempt to diminish Democratic power by discouraging noncitizens from completing the survey. States rely on raw population data, rather than eligible voters, to draw House districts and to determine access to federal social welfare programs.
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Posted in census litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=125>


“Texas Democrats hit state with another lawsuit over new ban on temporary voting sites”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108218>
Posted on November 26, 2019 3:43 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108218> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Dallas Morning News:<https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2019/11/26/texas-democrats-hit-state-with-another-lawsuit-over-new-ban-on-temporary-voting-sites/>

Former Austin Assistant City Manager Terrell Blodgett and Texas’ Young Democrats and College Democrats filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to overturn House Bill 1888, claiming it suppresses the vote of marginalized communities….

The Texas Democratic Party and the party’s Senate and U.S. House campaign arms also filed a lawsuit<https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2019/10/30/democrats-challenge-new-texas-limits-on-polling-sites-claiming-its-gop-response-to-youth-surge-in-2018/> to block the law in October, alleging that it was an attempt to suppress young voters, whose turnout surged in 2018.

The bill, passed during this year’s legislative session, requires polling places to remain open all 12 days of early voting. County election officials can no longer set up temporary or “mobile” polls for one or two days at places such as hospitals, schools or college campuses unless they host a permanent site.

Friendswood Republican Rep. Greg Bonnen, the bill’s author, has said it’s intended to prevent the “selective harvesting of targeted voters” that critics say occurs when elections officials have the discretion to choose where to place polling sites. Bonnen and the secretary of state could not immediately be reached for comment.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Misinformation Efforts Over Kentucky Vote Could Be Playbook for 2020”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108216>
Posted on November 26, 2019 1:39 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108216> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Doozy <https://www.propublica.org/article/misinformation-efforts-over-kentucky-vote-could-be-playbook-for-2020> from Jessica Huseman:

The personality, whose real name is Terpsichore Lindeman, alleged that somehow she and her husband had wound up as registered Democrats in Kentucky, which she saw as a sure sign that Andy Beshear, the Democratic attorney general ultimately declared the winner of the race for governor, had been manipulating the voter rolls.

Lindeman said that she is not a Democrat, and that she had her name removed from the rolls when she and her husband left the state years ago. Indeed, she said her husband is not a U.S. citizen and should not have been on any voting roll.

The claims gained no small degree of exposure. Lindeman’s dozens of tweets on the matter were retweeted hundreds of times. InfoWars, the conspiracy theory website, repeated her claims in multiple articles over a series of days. The website of the far-right activist Laura Loomer featured the story prominently. The Kentucky State Board of Elections received calls from alarmed voters, all while incumbent Republican Gov. Matt Bevin — who’d lost the election — talked darkly, but without specifics, about “irregularities” on Election Day.

ProPublica decided to check out Lindeman’s claims, and none add up, falling apart in the face of routine checks of public records. Still, experts say the disinformation spread by Lindeman in Kentucky and the virality and confusion that ensued is a peek into what could befall voters in 2020, when similar techniques are expected to be part of the arsenal of both the right and the left….

Debunking Lindeman’s claims starts with her and her husband’s voter registration information, which are public records. Their Kentucky registration forms<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6561055-Terpsichore-Lindeman.html> show that both checked the box for Democrat when they registered to vote in Fayette County in 2008. Her husband, who Lindeman claims is not a citizen, also signed<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6561059-Barry-Lindeman.html> the form in 2008, which requires signers to attest they are a U.S. citizen. Lying on the form carries a penalty of fines or jail time of up to 12 months. The couple, records show<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6561061-11-25-2019-Huseman-ORR-Lindeman.html>, have never removed themselves from the rolls or changed their registration status until Nov. 8 of this year, which is when she began tweeting.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


New Lawsuit Filed Against Arizona Law Requiring Absentee Ballots to Arrive (Not Be Postmarked) by Election Day<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108212>
Posted on November 26, 2019 11:04 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108212> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The new lawsuit from Voto Latino and Priorities USA raises both constitutional and Voting Rights Act claims.

Read the complaint.<https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/Voto-Latino.pdf>
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Posted in absentee ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>, Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>


John Gore’s Ostensibly Faulty Memory Now at Issue in Litigation Over Pence-Kobach Commission (in Addition to Census Case)<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108210>
Posted on November 26, 2019 7:09 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108210> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Tierney Sneed<https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/john-gore-census-voter-fraud-commission> for TPM:

The apparent memory problems of a former Trump Justice Department appointee have continued to haunt the department since the official left the administration.

Last week, in two separate cases, the Justice Department had to tell courts that the former official, John Gore, had issues remembering key communications related to the disputes in front of the judges.
One of those cases is the lawsuit that was brought against the census citizenship question, where the ACLU is seeking sanctions against the administration for allegedly withholding evidence in the case. The Justice Department in a Friday filing said that Gore had “no recollection” of texts sent to him that were related to the failed push to add the question to the census.

And in a separate case, arising from the now-disbanded Trump voter fraud commission, the Justice Department had to “correct” a declaration previously filed by Gore. According to the DOJ’s new filing, Gore now no longer remembers when he first came into contact with a GOP operative who was seeking that the commission investigate alleged voter fraud in Chicago. Gore also didn’t remember an email thread with another DOJ official and the White House referencing the operative.

Two Senate Judiciary Democrats have seized on the developments in both cases to renew their push for the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility to review Gore’s conduct. In a new letter Monday, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said the census citizenship case development “casts further doubt on Mr. Gore’s credibility.” They also argued that the corrected declaration in the voter fraud commission case was “relevant” to OPR’s review.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, Department of Justice<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=26>, fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


Pam Fessler: “As 2020 Approaches, Some Experienced Election Officials Head To The Exits”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108208>
Posted on November 26, 2019 7:05 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108208> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Important report<https://www.npr.org/2019/11/26/782680291/as-2020-approaches-some-experienced-election-officials-head-to-the-exits> from NPR.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


Republicans Plan for Misleading Websites in Upcoming Texas Elections<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108206>
Posted on November 26, 2019 7:00 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108206> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Dallas Morning News<https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2019/11/26/republican-party-of-texas-election-strategy-document-for-2020-elections-leaked-to-democrats/>:

In a bizarre political blunder, a document laying out the Republican Party of Texas’s election strategy for the 2020 elections has ended up in the hands of Texas Democrats. Attacking Democratic candidates through websites and mitigating “the polarizing nature” of President Donald Trump are part of the plan.

The document — called a draft for initial discussion by the Texas GOP Party chair — was titled “Primary/General Election 2020 [Draft]” and began showing up in Democratic emails Monday evening….

“Starting after the Primary, the RPT will generate microsites for negative hits against the Democrat candidates in our twelve target race—we expect each microsite to be roughly $500,” the document reads. “We will then begin rolling out these websites, prioritizing the races that were within 4% in the 2018 election.”…

The document lays out a plan to purchase online domain names affiliated with the names of Democratic candidates so that Republicans can reroute them to the negative attack websites.

“For example, we will purchase ZwienerforTexas.com<http://zwienerfortexas.com/>, ZwienerforTX.com<http://zwienerfortx.com/>, and so on,” the document reads.


Democratic Rep. Erin Zwiener of Driftwood is among the other six House members on the list. The others are Reps. Vikki Goodwin and John Bucy of Austin, James Talarico of Round Rock, Gina Calanni of Katy and Jon Rosenthal of Houston.

The document says Republicans will audit search engine optimization results to make sure that the negative attack websites are on the front pages of various search engines and work with other stakeholders — such as Texans for Greg Abbott, the governor’s campaign arm — “to get any more insight on issues that matter to these districts.”
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


“National Democrats approve early caucus voting for Nevada”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108204>
Posted on November 26, 2019 6:56 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108204> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP:<https://lasvegassun.com/news/2019/nov/25/national-democrats-approve-early-caucus-voting-for/#.XdzS_6JWnF0.mailto>

The Democratic National Committee has approved a plan by Nevada Democrats to offer the first-ever early voting option for presidential caucuses, a change stemming from a push to make the in-person presidential nominating meetings more accessible.

The state party’s chairman, William McCurdy II, and the DNC chairman, Tom Perez, intend to hold a conference call on Monday to announce the approval of the plan, the party confirmed.

Besides offering four days of early voting, Nevada’s plan calls for releasing raw vote totals from the caucus, offering caucus materials in Tagalog for the state’s growing Filipino population and having caucus workers use an app instead of paper to record and transmit results to party officials.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>


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