[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/1/20

Wed Apr 1 09:28:05 PDT 2020

“Judge signals he will expand voting but not delay Wisconsin’s election amid coronavirus outbreak”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110350>
Posted on April 1, 2020 9:19 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110350> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Journal-Sentinel:<https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/04/01/judge-signals-he-expand-voting-but-not-delay-wisconsins-election/5097887002/>

A federal judge is signaling he will not move next week’s presidential primary but will expand people’s ability to vote — possibly by allowing them to cast ballots by mail after election day because of the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. District Judge William Conley will hold a hearing at 1 p.m. over what changes, if any, he should make to Tuesday’s election as mayors and clerks warn that voters and poll workers could be sickened and ballots could go uncounted.

In a video conference with attorneys Tuesday, Conley indicated he did not think he could change the election date but believed he could offer significant other help for voters. Conley did not allow reporters to listen in on Tuesday’s video conference, but three people familiar with his comments described them to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Loeffler reports more stock sales amid insider trading allegations”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110348>
Posted on April 1, 2020 9:17 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110348> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AJC:<https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/loeffler-reports-more-stock-sales-amid-insider-trading-allegations/YFPDT3pChO873nuzNKa44K/>

U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s most recent financial disclosures show that millions of dollars in stocks were sold on her behalf at the same time Congress was dealing with the impact of the coronavirus.

The largest transactions — and the most politically problematic — involve $18.7 million in sales of Intercontinental Exchange stock<https://efdsearch.senate.gov/search/view/ptr/829529d5-698a-4b58-9af0-8a189cb7a6a8/> in three separate deals dated Feb. 26 and March 11. Loeffler is a former executive with ICE, and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, is the CEO of the company, which owns the New York Stock Exchange among other financial marketplaces.

During the same time period reflected on reports filed late Tuesday, the couple also sold shares in retail stores<https://efdsearch.senate.gov/search/view/ptr/425096a9-b206-40a7-86b8-67fa4081b252/> such as Lululemon and T.J. Maxx and invested in a company that makes COVID-19 protective garments. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution got the first look at these reports, covering mid-February through mid-March and shedding new light on Loeffler’s financial transactions during the pandemic. Previous reports — which have put Loeffler in the national spotlight — covered her trading during the first six weeks of 2020.
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Posted in conflict of interest laws<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=20>

Wisconsin: “Gov. Tony Evers to use National Guard members to work the polls amid massive shortage of workers”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110346>
Posted on April 1, 2020 9:15 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110346> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.<https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/04/01/tony-evers-use-national-guard-members-work-polls-amid-massive-shortage-workers/5102869002/>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Gerrymandered by Definition: The Distortion of ‘Traditional’ Districting Principles and a Proposal for an Empirical Redefinition”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110343>
Posted on April 1, 2020 9:02 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110343> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Yunsieg Kim and Jowei Chen have posted this draft<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3543820&dgcid=ejournal_htmlemail_u.s.:constitutional:law:rights:liberties:ejournal_abstractlink> on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

What are “traditional” districting criteria? The meaning of that term is critical to curbing abusive districting practices, because states must draw electoral districts according to those criteria to defeat claims of racial gerrymandering. Yet, the Supreme Court has never explicitly stated the qualities that make a districting criterion “traditional,” or given an exhaustive list of such criteria. Exploiting the Court’s failure to intelligibly define traditional redistricting criteria, conflicted interests are attempting to define that term in service of their private interests at the expense of the public’s. For example, legislatures pushing redistricting plans that would advantage a particular party or protect incumbents from competition claim that those districting objectives are “traditional”—and therefore must be judicially protected—by relying on anecdotal examples of a state having used them.

This Article proposes a definition of “traditional” districting criteria that would both curb such abuse and stay faithful to the commonly understood meaning of that word: widely accepted as standard practice. Under this alternative, which we call the empirical definition, a criterion is “traditional” only if a majority of the states require or allow it and fewer than a quarter prohibit it in state constitutions, statutes, or legislative guidelines. According to the empirical definition and our database of the redistricting laws of the fifty states, compactness, contiguity, equal population, and preserving county and city boundaries are traditional criteria. Among others, partisan advantage, incumbent protection, and preserving communities of interest are nontraditional criteria that should not be judicially protected.

In addition to the quantitative indicator, we argue that nontraditional districting criteria tend to be defined so as to be applied in a geographically inconsistent manner. Advantaging a certain party or protecting incumbents, by definition, requires disparate application, whereas preserving county boundaries applies regardless of whether a county votes Republican or Democratic. We also argue that preserving communities of interest is not traditional because it imposes a procedure instead of a substantively unambiguous districting principle, and because the term is so open-ended that it can be abused to justify nontraditional criteria such as partisan advantage or incumbency protection.

The empirical definition presents both legal and political advantages over the status quo. By presenting an objectively discernible definition of traditional criteria, the empirical definition would reduce the influence of undesirable judicial activism over election litigation. By excluding objectives such as partisan advantage or incumbency protection, it would also provide more constitutional protection from abusive districting.
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

“Not an April Fools’ joke: Nation’s campaign finance watchdog is MIA as FEC endures longest period without a quorum in its history”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110341>
Posted on April 1, 2020 8:59 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110341> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Issue One report.<https://www.issueone.org/not-an-aprils-fools-joke-nations-campaign-finance-watchdog-is-mia-as-fec-endures-longest-period-without-a-quorum-in-its-history/>
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, federal election commission<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24>

Sean Parnell on State Legislators’ Power to Set the Rules for Choosing Presidential Electors<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110339>
Posted on April 1, 2020 8:56 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110339> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Sean’s post<https://saveourstates.com/blog/about-that-plenary-and-exclusive-power?fbclid=IwAR2Tl-qqWoNsmAt1AZnbp5VynP8ECNRGDP5MhlSRFeU-zkbTMzYNxOzfpGU> is about limits on state legislative power in relation to NPV, but the issue goes well beyond that in this period of crisis.
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Posted in electoral college<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=44>

No ELB April Fool’s Posts This Year<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110337>
Posted on April 1, 2020 8:41 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110337> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

One of my great work joys will have to be on hiatus given present circumstances.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“The November election is going to be a nightmare”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110335>
Posted on March 31, 2020 9:17 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110335> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Paul Waldman WaPo column<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/31/november-election-is-going-be-nightmare/>.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Franita and Foley: Voting in the Time of the Virus, Part 2″<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110333>
Posted on March 31, 2020 9:15 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110333> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Beyond causing delays, COVID-19 will impact the many administrative and logistical aspects of the 2020 U.S. presidential election — from staffing to absentee ballot printing to vote counting. How can we prepare if we don’t know what to expect? What happens if there is a second wave of the virus? Is the coronavirus relief bill’s $400 million to protect elections enough? Election scholars Ned Foley (OSU Moritz College of Law) and Franita Tolson (USC Gould School of Law) welcome guests Nathaniel Persily (Stanford Law School) and Charles Stewart III (MIT Political Science) to discuss what needs to be done to prepare for Election Day.

Listen.<https://soundcloud.com/freeandfair/voting-in-the-time-of-the-virus-part-2>
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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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