[EL] ELB News and Commentary 10/30/19

[Rick Hasen]

"FBI Documents: Kobach Hired A Criminal Investigator With No Law Enforcement Experience"<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107842>
Posted on October 30, 2019 7:49 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107842> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

KCUR:

One of the hallmarks of Kris Kobach's time as Kansas Secretary of State was his power to investigate and prosecute voter fraud<https://www.kcur.org/post/kansas-secretary-state-race-pits-quiet-conservative-against-google-guy#stream/0>. Kobach, who is now running for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate, was the only secretary of state in America with such power.

KCUR has now learned that when Kobach needed an investigator to carry out these prosecutorial powers, he hired someone with no law enforcement experience, according to an FBI investigation into missing ammunition from the secretary of state's office.

The investigator, Craig McCullah, was Kobach's spokesperson during most of Kobach's time in the secretary of state's office. But McCullah wound end up conducting criminal investigations.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


"Did racially motivated voter suppression thwart Stacey Abrams?"<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107840>
Posted on October 30, 2019 7:45 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107840> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo Fact Checker:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/10/30/did-racially-motivated-voter-suppression-thwart-stacey-abrams/>

"Racially motivated patterns of voter suppression are responsible for Stacey Abrams not being governor of Georgia right now."
- South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D), in remarks in Bow, N.H., Oct. 25, 2019

It has become an article of faith among Democrats, especially those running for president, that Stacey Abrams was narrowly denied the governorship of Georgia because of voter suppression. It is equally an article of faith by Republicans that this is a false claim based on no evidence.

Buttigieg's remark caught our attention because he specifically said that the voter suppression was racially motivated and that it tipped the balance toward Republican Brian Kemp - who was directly responsible for overseeing the voting because he retained his post of secretary of state while he sought the governorship.

But it turns out this is a difficult situation to fact-check, and not quite as easy as the case when we gave Four Pinocchios<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/06/hillary-clintons-claims-about-voter-suppression-georgia-wisconsin/?tid=lk_inline_manual_8> to Hillary Clinton for claiming she lost Wisconsin in 2016 because of voter suppression or Four Pinocchios to Sen. Cory Booker<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/02/bookers-claim-that-democrats-lost-michigan-because-russian-gop-suppression/?tid=lk_inline_manual_8> (D-N.J.) for claiming Russian efforts to suppress African American votes led to Clinton's loss of Michigan. ...

Hasen, the UC Irvine expert, said the practices used under Kemp raise serious questions even if one cannot prove they affected the election outcome.

"There is no question that Georgia in general and Brian Kemp in particular took steps to make it harder for people to register and vote, and that those people tended to skew Democratic," Hasen said. "I have seen no good social science evidence that efforts to make it harder to register and vote were responsible for Kemp's victory over Abrams in the Georgia gubernatorial race. That seems to me to be beside the point: The question is whether Georgia had a good reason to put these suppressive measures in place, and for the most part, the state did not have good reasons."
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


"Significant Pennsylvania election law changes headed to governor's desk"<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107838>
Posted on October 30, 2019 7:42 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107838> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP:<https://www.mcall.com/news/pennsylvania/mc-nws-pa-election-reforms-20191029-5sebng2dtbgqln6xeba7sjqgzu-story.html>

Legislation headed toward the governor's desk in Pennsylvania on Tuesday would deliver the biggest changes to state election laws in decades and provide aid to counties for much of the cost of new voting machines as a bulwark against hacking in next year's presidential election.

In a compromise package negotiated behind closed doors over the last four months, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf secured some of his priorities to increase voting access, including allowing any voter to mail in a ballot and moving voter-registration deadlines closer to the election.

In exchange, Republicans who control the state Legislature dropped their opposition to Wolf's insistence that counties buy new voting machines and secured their top priority, eliminating the ballot option for straight-party voting.

Counties, meanwhile, will get $90 million in aid to offset the costs of buying the new machines ahead of an election in which Pennsylvania will be one of the nation's premier presidential battlegrounds.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


New York: "Minor parties fear state commission trying to secure more power for major parties"<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107836>
Posted on October 30, 2019 7:36 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107836> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Newsday<https://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/fusion-voting-jay-jacobs-minor-parties-1.38017266>:

The panel is charged with developing a voluntary system of using state funds to help pay for political campaigns, but Cuomo and other legislative leaders also tasked the commission with looking at the merits of fusion voting. The system provides the liberal Working Families Party influence with the Democratic Party and the Conservative Party influence with the Republican Party.

Jacobs, however, proposes that minor parties face a much higher bar before they can secure a permanent place on the ballot. He said minor parties should have to attract up to 250,000 votes - five times the current threshold - to qualify for an automatic line on ballots, in a proposal first reported by The New York Times.
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Posted in ballot access<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=46>, campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, third parties<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=47>


Eleventh Circuit Rejects Claims from Sanders' Supporters of DNC Bias in 2016<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107833>
Posted on October 29, 2019 4:25 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107833> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

An unsurprising ruling.<http://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/201714194.pdf>
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Posted in political parties<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>, primaries<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=32>


"In Milwaukee, an inner-city group tackles a key Democratic need: Turning out black voters"<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107831>
Posted on October 29, 2019 10:56 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107831> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo reports.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-milwaukee-an-inner-city-group-tackles-a-key-democratic-need-turning-out-black-voters/2019/10/23/ceee17ea-e9d4-11e9-9c6d-436a0df4f31d_story.html>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


Payday Lenders Group Confirms It Is Buying Ingratiation and And Access to Trump Administration (Don't Worry, Justice Kennedy Told Us)<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107829>
Posted on October 29, 2019 10:42 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107829> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo<https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/10/29/payday-lenders-discussed-raising-money-trumps-campaign-fend-off-regulation-audio-reveals/>:

Billing himself as one of President Trump's top fundraisers, Michael Hodges told fellow payday lenders recently that industry contributions to the president's reelection campaign could be leveraged to gain access to the Trump administration.

"Every dollar amount, no matter how small or large it is" is important, Hodges, founder of Advance Financial, one of the country's largest payday lenders, said during a 48-minute webcast, obtained by The Washington Post.

"For example, I've gone to Ronna McDaniel and said, 'Ronna, I need help on something,' " Hodges said, referring to the chair of the Republican National Committee. "She's been able to call over to the White House and say, 'Hey, we have one of our large givers. They need an audience. ... They need to be heard and you need to listen to them.' So that's why it's important."...

"If you need something and we may need something ... then it would be good to be able to pick up the phone and call someone that could get the president's attention," Wood said during the webinar. Contributing to Trump's campaign will help keep the president in office, he said, and "it will give [Hodges] access in the event that we need to have access to the president."
In an interview, Wood acknowledged posting the YouTube video but then referred questions about fundraising to others who took part. The video, which had about 40 views as of Friday afternoon, was removed shortly after The Post asked Wood about it.
The major focus of the call appeared to be fundraising, which the industry insiders said would be critical to maintaining access to the Trump administration. Hodges encouraged others to donate to Trump's campaign and referred to his efforts to bolster his standing with the administration.

Justice Kennedy infamously wrote in Citizens Unite<https://t.co/hifP3AVGmM>d: "Ingratiation and access, in any event, are not corruption."
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>



--
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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