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

Mon Apr 20 07:55:49 PDT 2020

“GOP war on mail ballots may backfire”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110855>
Posted on April 20, 2020 7:53 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110855> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

I have written this oped<https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-how-to-vote-during-a-pandemic-20200420-spwxu5vkgngwfdwcvyw547zoy4-story.html> for the NY Daily News. It begins:

If there’s one lesson the farce of conducting the April 7 Wisconsin elections in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic should have taught Republicans, it is that the voters you hurt may be your own. Rather than play games in an effort to depress turnout among likely Democratic voters, now is the time for all officials — both Democrat and Republican — to think about how to make voting safe, secure and easy in November.

There are signs from Wisconsin that Republican efforts to make it harder to vote in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic are backfiring in two ways. First, suppressive efforts are firing up Democrats to come out and vote. As the New York Times reported<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/us/politics/trump-wisconsin-2020-election.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share>, Democrats voted in large numbers<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/15/wisconsin-primary-had-extraordinarily-high-voter-turnout/> in a highly contested state Supreme Court race — and a less contested Democratic presidential primary.

Second, suppressive efforts are making it harder for some staunch Republican voters and Trump supporters, particularly in rural areas, to cast their ballots.

“While Republicans encouraged early and absentee voting, many elderly either did not have the wherewithal to request absentee ballots or the inclination to vote in person on April 7.” Doug Rogalla, the Republican Party chairman in Monroe County, told the Times. “They were confused, afraid and decided to stay home.”

But some Republicans still have not gotten the message….

Indeed, we have seen stories of many responsible Republican officials who have pushed back on the president’s claims, such as Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose<https://twitter.com/FrankLaRose/status/1249378551217950720>, who has called Ohio’s vote by mail system safe and secure. Moreover, Republicans in places like Florida<https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/04/08/trump-condemns-vote-by-mail-but-the-florida-gop-is-counting-on-it-to-win-1274007> depend upon strong vote-by-mail efforts as part of their get-out-the-vote activities. In a state like Florida, with a large elderly population, such efforts are not only good politics but good for the health and safety of vulnerable populations.

It would be nice to think that all Republican leaders would agree that we should think about the remaining primaries and upcoming November election with an eye toward how to maximize the participation of eligible voters in a way that assures they can cast safe and effective votes. But even if some leaders care only about partisanship in designing election rules in the COVID-19 era, what is good for all voters may be especially good for reliable Republican voters.
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Posted in absentee ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>, The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“Zuckerberg says stay-at-home protests organized through Facebook qualify as ‘harmful misinformation'”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110853>
Posted on April 20, 2020 7:44 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110853> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Hill:<https://thehill.com/homenews/media/493649-zuckerberg-says-stay-at-home-protests-organized-through-facebook-qualify-as>

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg<https://thehill.com/people/mark-zuckerberg> on Monday told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos<https://thehill.com/people/george-stephanopoulos> that protests against stay-at-home orders organized through his social media site qualify as “harmful misinformation” and are taken down.

“How do you deal with the fact that Facebook is now being used to organize a lot of these protests to defy social distancing guidelines in states,” the “Good Morning America” anchor asked Zuckerberg. “If somebody trying to organize something like that, does that qualify as harmful misinformation?”

“We do classify that as harmful misinformation and we take that down,” Zuckerberg said. “At the same time, it’s important that people can debate policies so there’s a line on this, you know, more than normal political discourse. I think a lot of the stuff that people are saying that is false around a health emergency like this can be classified as harmful misinformation.”
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Posted in social media and social protests<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=58>

“A Post-Pandemic Voting Reform Agenda”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110851>
Posted on April 20, 2020 7:39 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110851> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Rob Richie and David Daley<https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/a-post-pandemic-voting-reform-agenda/> in Democracy.
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Posted in alternative voting systems<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=63>

“Coronavirus Intensifies Legal Tussle Over Voting Rights; Pandemic adds twist to some long-simmering controversies playing out during 2020 election cycle”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110849>
Posted on April 19, 2020 8:26 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110849> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Brent Kendall and Alexa Course for the WSJ<https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-intensifies-legal-tussle-over-voting-rights-11587315601?shareToken=std68f0d1a283247d29d6d50772946c71f&reflink=article_email_share>:

Intense court battles over voting rights and election security always promised to be part of the 2020 election cycle, but the coronavirus has added new urgency to the cases, which are multiplying nationwide.

This month’s fight over when and how Wisconsin voters would cast their ballots marked the unofficial start of the litigation campaign. In the two weeks since, courts in several other states have issued notable decisions about conducting elections during a pandemic, and a host of new lawsuits has been filed.

“Before I’d ever heard of the coronavirus, I was convinced that this was going to be a record year for litigation,” said University of California, Irvine law professor Richard Hasen. “Now I’m even surer of that fact.”

Voting-rights fights have been growing for years, a function of tighter voting regulations in several Republican-led states, intense partisanship and a realization that electoral rules can affect outcomes in close races. The cases have nearly tripled since 2000, the year of the Bush v. Gore showdown, Mr. Hasen said. According to his new book “Election Meltdown,” the 2018 election year saw a record 394 cases, surprisingly high for a nonpresidential cycle.

Throw into the 2020 mix the divisions over President Trump and the importance of state legislative races whose winners will control redistricting after the 2020 census, and experts see a recipe for an even more furious litigation season.
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Posted in Election Meltdown<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=127>

“2020 Will the Pandemic Keep Third Parties Off the 2020 Ballot?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110847>
Posted on April 19, 2020 8:15 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110847> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Bill Scher for Politico Magazine<https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/19/coronavirus-election-2020-third-party-libertarian-green-trump-biden-193013>:

For America’s third parties, this is nothing less than an existential crisis. Without ballot access, national pollsters won’t feel obligated to include Green and Libertarian candidates in their surveys; voters will be less aware of their nominees and platforms; journalists will be less likely to pay any attention to them; and the probability diminishes that either the Libertarians or Greens can reach the holy grail of 5 percent of the popular vote—the point at which they would finally qualify for federal campaign matching funds.

But for the Democratic and Republican Parties, the absence of third parties from the ballot in key states makes 2020 genuinely unlike any presidential election in recent memory—minimizing the chances for “spoiler” candidates, while giving both major parties something they did not have in 2016: a two-person presidential race and a simpler path to victory.

Now, don’t count out the Libertarians and Greens just yet. There are multiple fronts in the fight ahead, as they see it, and they’re prepared for battle on each one….

Since the third parties are not expecting uniform assistance from state executive and legislative branches, they are gearing up for more court battles. “We’re prepared to sue everywhere that we have to,” Fishman said, adding that he feels “very confident that we’re going to win all of those court cases” since “there’s never been a stronger case that the petition requirement is unreasonable.”

Experts in election law who were consulted for this story were more skeptical.
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Posted in ballot access<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=46>, third parties<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=47>

“Lawsuit seeks to ease absentee voting laws in Missouri during pandemic”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110845>
Posted on April 19, 2020 8:11 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110845> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

St. Louis Post-Dispatch<https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/lawsuit-seeks-to-ease-absentee-voting-laws-in-missouri-during-pandemic/article_4814c7e0-f29c-582f-8272-5e1e7397716b.amp.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share&__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR1bVxV-UPwdJU3XzHp8i8NJ5a44M2UVOs-oK822gwQuYV0QMJVqz-jDk98>:

 Voting rights groups filed suit<https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/missouri-naacp-v-missouri-complaint-0> Friday to allow Missourians to vote by mail if they are sheltering in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition said they want to make absentee balloting available to all eligible voters.

“No one should be forced to choose between staying safe and voting. Expanding absentee ballot access to all registered voters during the pandemic is a commonsense solution that protects people’s health and their right to vote,” said Sophia Lin Lakin<https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophia-lin-lakin-a1a86a3>, deputy director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project.
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Posted in absentee ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>

“Federal Courts Won’t Hear North Carolina Gerrymandering Case”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110843>
Posted on April 19, 2020 8:06 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110843> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Bloomberg Law<https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/federal-courts-wont-hear-north-carolina-gerrymandering-case>:

North Carolina legislators can’t remove to federal court a state suit under the state constitution challenging a redistricting plan that they say is gerrymandered in favor of Republicans, the Fourth Circuit said Thursday<http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/191091.P.pdf>.
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

Sally Field Reads Portions of Justice Ginsburg’s Dissent in Wisconsin Voting Case in Short Video from Brave New Films<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110841>
Posted on April 19, 2020 8:03 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110841> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Watch<https://www.bravenewfilms.org/vote?utm_campaign=swn_nd2&utm_medium=email&utm_source=bravenew>.
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Posted in Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

Another Virus-Related Potential Voting Issue<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110838>
Posted on April 19, 2020 11:36 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110838> by Richard Pildes<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=7>

From this story<https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/coronavirus-may-stop-hundreds-thousands-becoming-citizens-time-vote-november-n1178541>, which begins this way:

Cancellation of citizenship oath ceremonies and in-person interviews because of coronavirus<https://www.nbcnews.com/health/coronavirus> means hundreds of thousands of people may not naturalize in time for November’s elections.

If ceremonies and interviews remain shut down until October without remote alternatives created by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services,<https://www.uscis.gov/> about 441,000 people who would have been citizens would be deprived of the chance to vote, according to Boundless Immigration<https://www.boundless.com/>, a technology company that helps immigrants apply for green cards and citizenship.
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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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