[EL] Kleinfelds’ proposal

Thu Apr 9 08:35:24 PDT 2020

The November election could easily turn into the full employment act for elections lawyers. State-by-state decisions will be influenced by state, local and partisan factors. 180 polling places become 5 in Milwaukee. The big Texas polling place reduction. Battles over rules for absentee voting. And other stuff beyond our ability to imagine when it is left to the competitive instincts of party operatives. All will be in play as governors and legislators manipulate the system to support their side and disadvantage the other side. And therein lies the one greatest flaw in the Kleinfelds’ proposal: it needs to apply equally and universally across all the states and that just won’t happen unless the feds step in with money and enforcement. And that won’t happen either. Not with the leadership of one party saying they can’t win if everyone votes and the head of that party claiming massive fraud in absentee voting. It all calls to mind an adage I first uttered nearly 50 years ago: get-out-the-vote is not a public service project, it’s really get-out-your-vote.

Larry

From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> On Behalf Of Trevor Potter
Sent: Thursday, 9 April 2020 6:09 AM
To: Sean Parnell <sean at impactpolicymanagement.com>
Cc: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: Re: [EL] Kleinfelds’ proposal

Two responses- both pretty obvious. The first is that these are normal times—in particular, states’ revenues will be plunging with the cessation of so much economic activity ( and this tax revenue) , so that their budgets will be under huge pressure just when the funding for elections is needed. And states cannot print dollars. ( This is entirely a side from the fact that states and localities generally under- invest in elections because they are only an occasional event and do not deliver direct services to constituents).

Second, the November quadrennial election is for federal offices as well as state- the whole House, one third of the Senate, and the Presidency. At a time of national crisis, it is more appropriate than usual that the federal government do everything it can to ensure those elections proceed as smoothly as possible and that citizens have a real opportunity to cast their ballots. Protecting our democratic process and ensuring the federal government has the legitimacy of full citizen participation in voting is more important in a time of crisis than in normal times .

Since the November federal elections ( unlike primaries) cannot be postponed , it is crucial that States have the resources to conduct them well. Telling states to do the best they can with their shrunken resources , in a time of demonstrated need for greater expenditure, is certainly one approach we could take—but in my view a very dangerous one.

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 9, 2020, at 8:47 AM, Sean Parnell <sean at impactpolicymanagement.com <mailto:sean at impactpolicymanagement.com> > wrote:

It’s probably worth noting that states generally fund and run their own elections, so there’s no real need to go through McConnell and Trump to expand absentee voting and other options. Federal funding would no doubt help make the decision to expand absentee voting easier, but lack of funding is not an absolute barrier.

Sean Parnell

From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu <mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> > On Behalf Of David Segal
Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2020 10:29 PM
To: Eric J Segall <esegall at gsu.edu <mailto:esegall at gsu.edu> >
Cc: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu <mailto:law-election at uci.edu> >
Subject: Re: [EL] Kleinfelds’ proposal

It's good that they are pushing and I think a patchwork of purple, and even some red, states might implement procedures along these lines. (Hard to imagine that all would, which might implicate the POTUS race and would certainly have impacts on Congress and state and local races.)

But it's very hard for me to see a path under any circumstances through McConnell and Trump, even if Congressional Ds prioritize this more in negotiations.

Do other folks here think otherwise, re: the politics of the bulk of R-controlled states and Congress, and if so would you be able to speak to what it looks like in more detail?

On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 9:59 PM Eric J Segall <esegall at gsu.edu <mailto:esegall at gsu.edu%3cmailto:esegall at gsu.edu> <mailto:esegall at gsu.edu>> wrote:
Yes. excellent piece, great ideas, and thanks Ilya for supporting it.

Best,

Eric
Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 8, 2020, at 8:28 PM, Ilya Shapiro <IShapiro at cato.org <mailto:IShapiro at cato.org%3cmailto:IShapiro at cato.org> <mailto:IShapiro at cato.org>> wrote:
 I thought this was solid and would get bipartisan support:

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coronavirus-response-holding-elections-during-pandemic/<https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalreview.com%2F2020%2F04%2Fcoronavirus-response-holding-elections-during-pandemic%2F <https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalreview.com%2F2020%2F04%2Fcoronavirus-response-holding-elections-during-pandemic%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cesegall%40gsu.edu%7C119d6d922e124261fa9008d7dc1cf8fa%7C515ad73d8d5e4169895c9789dc742a70%7C0%7C0%7C637219889314052158&sdata=4s3OdhFO8WLQxHc0JJqmIRohy3lAafOZxuD09D9fQSY%3D&reserved=0> &data=02%7C01%7Cesegall%40gsu.edu%7C119d6d922e124261fa9008d7dc1cf8fa%7C515ad73d8d5e4169895c9789dc742a70%7C0%7C0%7C637219889314052158&sdata=4s3OdhFO8WLQxHc0JJqmIRohy3lAafOZxuD09D9fQSY%3D&reserved=0>
Ilya Shapiro
Director
Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies
Cato Institute
1000 Mass. Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20001
(o) 202-218-4600
(c) 202-577-1134
Twitter: @ishapiro

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