[EL] ELB News and Commentary 10/28/19

Mon Oct 28 09:13:42 PDT 2019

“Done in by a deadline; A Georgia law prevented 87,000 people from voting last year. And it could have a big impact in 2020”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107818>
Posted on October 28, 2019 9:09 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107818> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

APM Reports/WBAE.<https://www.apmreports.org/story/2019/10/28/georgia-voting-deadlines-2020-election>
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Posted in voter registration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=37>

“As Russia makes 2020 play, Democratic campaigns say they are in the dark, and experts fear U.S. elections are vulnerable”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107816>
Posted on October 28, 2019 8:51 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107816> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-russia-makes-2020-play-democratic-campaigns-say-they-are-in-the-dark-and-experts-fear-us-elections-are-vulnerable/2019/10/28/71ffb55c-f5eb-11e9-ad8b-85e2aa00b5ce_story.html?wpmk=MK0000200>:

Several Democratic presidential campaigns targeted by a Russia-based operation on Facebook’s popular Instagram app said they had been unaware of the new foreign disinformation efforts until the tech giant announced them publicly last week, raising alarms that American democracy remains vulnerable to foreign interference even after three years of investigations into the Kremlin’s attack on the 2016 election.
The lack of advance notice to the apparent victims of the first-known attempts by Russians to interfere directly in the 2020 race has heightened fears that campaigns are largely on their own when it comes to guarding against attacks from foreign interests.

Campaign officials, security experts and Democratic lawmakers said the latest material served as a warning sign that the Trump administration and the tech industry are still struggling to coordinate their response as threats to the U.S. political system intensify. In particular, the threats now emanate from multiple countries, including Iran and China, where malicious actors have adopted Russia’s playbook in a bid to manipulate social media to their political advantage.

Some said they were unnerved by the nature of the recent Instagram posts, which seemed to target battleground states and demonstrated a nuanced understanding of the dynamics at play in the 2020 Democratic primary. They appeared, for instance, to stoke African American resentment of former vice president Joe Biden while tapping into themes designed to undercut Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Kamala D. Harris (Calif.), as well. The Russian network appeared to be relatively small and in an audience-building mode, analysts said.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Republicans escalate their strategy of voter suppression”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107814>
Posted on October 28, 2019 8:49 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107814> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo editorial.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-escalate-their-strategy-of-voter-suppression/2019/10/27/69ceef88-f762-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html?wpmk=MK0000200>
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“The Supreme Court Considers Political Lies in the Bridgegate Case”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107812>
Posted on October 28, 2019 8:44 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107812> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy column<https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/supreme-court-considers-political-lies-bridgegate-case>.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

Jerry Goldfeder Earns Lifetime Achievement Award from NY Law Journal<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107810>
Posted on October 28, 2019 8:42 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107810> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Congratulations Jerry!<https://f.datasrvr.com/fr1/819/45419/JGoldfederLifetime.pdf>
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Posted in election law biz<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=51>

“Georgia gains 300,000 new voters in 10 months”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107807>
Posted on October 27, 2019 9:52 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107807> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

11Alive<https://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/new-georgia-voters/85-a8ab84e3-1ffe-4a28-a49d-ec2279da8382>:

Georgia’s voting rolls have swollen over the last 10 months. Many of those newly-registered voters are new to the state, and Democrats think they’re going to help flip the state next year.

The surge is rooted in a new state law that automatically registered hundreds of thousands of new voters.

Although grassroots voter registration efforts like this one get much of the attention – the biggest source of new voters is the state Department of Driver Services. It’s where people go to get driver’s licenses. …

The state says more than 310,000 new voters have registered in 2019. Of those, 47 percent of them are people of color. Another 45 percent are under age 30, according to Fair Fight Georgia, the liberal group launched by Democrat Stacey Abrams.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“A false ad claiming Republicans back the Green New Deal tests Facebook’s policy on lies”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107805>
Posted on October 27, 2019 9:37 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107805> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CNN:<https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/26/politics/facebook-false-ad-green-new-deal/index.html?utm_source=CNN+Media%3A+Reliable+Sources&utm_campaign=4fac123d7a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_09_11_04_47_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e95cdc16a9-4fac123d7a-82746257>

A left-leaning PAC ran a Facebook ad falsely claiming that Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham endorsed the Green New Deal. The ad came after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez grilled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg<http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/politics/2019/10/24/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-zuckerberg-fact-checking-earlystart-sot-vpx.cnn.html> earlier this week about the company’s policy of allowing politicians to run ads on the platform that are false.
“Would I be able to run advertisements on Facebook targeting Republicans in primaries saying they voted for the Green New Deal,” Rep. Ocasio-Cortez asked Zuckerberg <http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/politics/2019/10/24/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-zuckerberg-fact-checking-earlystart-sot-vpx.cnn.html> at a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Wednesday. Adding, “I mean if you’re not fact-checking political advertisements, I’m just trying to understand the bounds here, what’s fair game?”
Ocasio-Cortez was criticizing Facebook’s policy of allowing politicians, including President Donald Trump, to run false ads on its platform.<https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/10/tech/facebook-false-trump-ads-analysis/index.html> The policy has prompted presidential hopefuls, including former Vice President Joe Biden<https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/19/politics/biden-campaign-facebook-false-trump-political-ad/index.html> and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, to also criticize the company.
On Thursday, a PAC named “The Really Online Lefty League” posted a false ad that used edited video to make it appear like Graham had endorsed the Green New Deal.

The ad ran successfully on Facebook until Saturday after it was flagged as false by a fact-checking group hired by the social media giant.<https://hoax-alert.leadstories.com/3471028-fake-news-lindsey-graham-green-new-deal-ad-aoc.html> Facebook then canceled the ad but allowed the false video to stay on the platform. Users will be alerted before sharing the video that it has been flagged by fact-checkers and Facebook says it will downrank the video, meaning it will be seen in less people’s feeds.
Facebook does not pro-actively fact-check political ads, which meant in this case the ad was able to run for more than a day before it was flagged and removed.
However, Facebook confirmed to CNN on Saturday, if Ocasio-Cortez had run the same ad it would not be removed because fact-checking does not extend to politicians.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, social media and social protests<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=58>

“You Can Now Hear Elena Kagan Read Her Searing Dissent in the Partisan Gerrymandering Case”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107803>
Posted on October 25, 2019 5:15 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107803> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Slate:<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/elena-kagan-audio-partisan-gerrymandering-dissent.html>

“For the first time ever,” Justice Elena Kagan declared on June 27, “this court refuses to remedy a constitutional violation because it thinks the task beyond judicial capabilities.”
Kagan was reading a summary of her dissent in Rucho v. Common Cause<https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/18-422_9ol1.pdf>, a 5–4 decision that barred federal courts from hearing partisan gerrymandering claims. Chief Justice John Roberts had just wrapped up his majority opinion, delivered during the dramatic last session of the term. Justices rarely read dissents from the bench, and typically reserve the practice for decisions that they view to be catastrophically misguided. Now, for the first time, you can hear her deliver her historic dissent. Slate obtained the recording from the National Archives. It is deeply compelling and, for the stoic justice, remarkably impassioned. At first, her voice is filled with righteous fury, but it soon shifts into profound sorrow as she nears the end.
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“CREW Exposes Dark Money Donors including Thiel, DeVos and Adelson”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107801>
Posted on October 25, 2019 5:12 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107801> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CREW:<https://www.citizensforethics.org/press-release/crew-exposes-dark-money-donors-including-thiel-devos-and-adelson/>

Following a historic victory against dark money by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Americans for Job Security (AJS) has released its donors from 2010 through 2012, including major contributions from Peter Thiel, Richard and Helen DeVos, Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, and Robert McNair, as well as contributions from Trump appointees like Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, former SBA Administrator Linda McMahon and former-Labor Secretary nominee Andy Puzder. Other major donors included major players in the dark money world such as the Wellspring Committee, the Koch-connected Center to Protect Patient Rights, Crossroads GPS and Michigan Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility, major corporations like Wynn Resorts, Bass Pro Shops and Quicken Loans, PR firms like the DCI Group and government contractors like Hensel Phelps Construction.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, tax law and election law<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=22>

--
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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