[EL] (no subject)

[Pildes, Rick]

"Md. Gov. Larry Hogan says he tried to expand access to voting. Instead, he sparked a revolt"<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113619>
Posted on August 1, 2020 1:15 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113619> by Richard Pildes<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=7>

>From the Washington Post<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/hogan-voting-plan-backlash/2020/07/31/0628b7ee-d271-11ea-9038-af089b63ac21_story.html?hpid=hp_local1-8-12_hogan-140p%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans>:

When Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced an all-of-the-above strategy to conduct "a normal<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/maryland-election-hogan/2020/07/08/46e9e172-c12d-11ea-9fdd-b7ac6b051dc8_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_2>" election in November, he cast it as a decision to maximize voter access during the coronavirus<https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/28/what-you-need-know-about-coronavirus/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2> pandemic.

A massive backlash ensued.

Over the past three weeks, the custodians of hundreds of traditional polling precincts<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mhcLiG83-bdFQaHPo_xlaio8y_LRmAld/view?usp=sharing> have said they will refuse to host voters, or conditioned participating on the government paying to deep-clean and sanitize their churches or community centers....

The organization is meeting with Hogan's deputy chief of staff soon to lobby for voting centers in places like stadiums or other large venues that can process thousands of voters, spread far apart, with minimal staff.

Hogan, meanwhile, has steadfastly rejected the criticism and deflected responsibility for how the election should be conducted in November, saying the Board of Elections should have already figured this out....

Maryland appears to stand alone for having widespread backlash to its in-person voting alternative to supplement absentee balloting....

My goal is to give everybody every possible opportunity to vote," he said, adding that the state will provide all the personal protective equipment necessary to operate the polls.

Garreis, a deputy elections administrator in Anne Arundel County, said the costs of that are enormous: He estimated that getting plexiglass shields to separate 6,000 election check-in judges from voters could add up to $1 million just for his county....

Others, like Karen Nitkin of Howard County, are coming forward for the first time, drawn by what they see as the urgency of the situation.

"It is almost, literally, the least I could do," said Nitkin, whose daughter waited in line for three hours to vote in an understaffed Georgia precinct during the primary. When Nitkin filled out her absentee ballot application in Maryland, she checked the box asking if she was willing to be an election judge.

She's concerned about the health risk, but she's confident in the precautions and willing to withstand it for one day, especially because others are taking similar risks just to earn a paycheck.

"I wouldn't want to do it every day," she said. "But there are people who work at Target every day, and I wouldn't want to do that either. If there's ever an essential service, this is it."
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"2020 election threats extend to the Senate - and jeopardize our democracy"<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113617>
Posted on August 1, 2020 9:25 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113617> by Richard Pildes<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=7>

Sen. Coons op-ed<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/31/2020-election-threats-extend-senate-jeopardize-our-democracy/> in WP:

It is now well understood that states across the country do not have adequate resources to conduct an election during the novel coronavirus pandemic<https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-us-cases-deaths/?itid=lk_inline_manual_15>, largely because Congress and the states have provided only a small portion of the funds necessary to secure protective equipment for poll workers; clean and sanitize polling places; and pay for ballot printing, postage, drop boxes, high-speed scanners and staffing to process a record number of mail-in ballots....

There's more. Since U.S. election systems were attacked<https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/read-the-senate-intelligence-committee-s-report-russian-efforts-against-election-infrastructure-volume-one/ff61b4d1-930b-486b-a728-586ce8ad0c45/?itid=lk_inline_manual_20> by foreign adversaries three years ago<https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/department-of-national-intelligence-s-report-on-russian-interference-in-the-2016-presidential-election/43ce4f7b-c079-4fe5-97e3-ed1e200c008d/?itid=lk_inline_manual_20>, we haven't done enough to shore up our cyberdefenses, and some states have had to dip into whatever funds they have for cybersecurity just to buy protective equipment for poll workers. Meanwhile, President Trump's own FBI director<https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/fbi-russia-absolutely-intent-on-interfering-with-elections/2019/07/23/55e43f78-bf39-464f-82e7-d397cd062ad1_video.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_20> and more than one director of national intelligence have warned<https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/after-a-congressional-briefing-on-election-threats-trump-soured-on-acting-spy-chief/2020/02/20/1ed2b4ec-53f1-11ea-b119-4faabac6674f_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_20> that foreign actors - namely, Russia - will intensify their cyber-based attacks on our democracy this year....

Time is running out for us to invest in badly needed security improvements to U.S. voting systems. Congress invested $400 million in emergency funding<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senate-stimulus-package-includes-400-million-to-help-run-elections-amid-the-pandemic/2020/03/25/4d0db91e-6ebe-11ea-b148-e4ce3fbd85b5_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_25> for elections in a pandemic aid package<https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/03/27/congress-coronavirus-house-vote/?itid=lk_inline_manual_25> in March, but election analysts estimate that an additional $3.6 billion is needed to prepare for the fall. The House included this funding<https://www.rollcall.com/2020/05/12/house-democrats-propose-3-6-billion-for-expanding-voter-access/> more than two months ago as part of the Heroes Act. I'm working alongside Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and others to move this funding forward.

Political leaders from both parties need to make repeated, public commitments to guarding our elections against interference - foreign and domestic.
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"Why Alaska needs ranked-choice voting "<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113615>
Posted on August 1, 2020 9:16 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113615> by Richard Pildes<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=7>

Op-ed<https://www.adn.com/opinions/2020/07/31/why-alaska-needs-ranked-choice-voting/> in the Anchorage Daily News from Jacob Begich, after his father, Sen. Mark Begich, wrote a WSJ op-ed opposing RCV.
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"Despite virus threat, Black voters wary of voting by mail"<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113613>
Posted on August 1, 2020 9:12 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113613> by Richard Pildes<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=7>

>From AP News, in the Bellefontaine Examiner<https://www.examiner.org/despite-virus-threat-black-voters-wary-of-voting-by-mail/>:

Fears that the coronavirus pandemic will worsen, Victor Gibson said he's not planning to take advantage of Michigan's expanded vote-by-mail system when he casts his ballot in November.

The retired teacher from Detroit just isn't sure he can trust it. Many Black Americans share similar concerns and are planning to vote in person on Election Day, even as mail-in voting expands to more states as a safety precaution during the pandemic.

For many, historical skepticism of a system that tried to keep Black people from the polls and worries that a mailed ballot won't get counted outweigh the prospect of long lines and health dangers from a virus that's disproportionately affected communities of color. Ironically, suspicion of mail-in voting aligns with the views of President Donald Trump, whom many Black voters want out of office....

Decades of disenfranchisement are at the heart of the uneasy choice facing Black voters, one of the Democratic Party's most important voting groups. Widespread problems with mail-in ballots during this year's primary elections have added to the skepticism at a time when making Black voices heard has taken on new urgency during a national reckoning over racial injustice.

Patricia Harris of McDonough, Georgia, south of Atlanta, voted in person in the primary and said she will do the same in November.

"I simply do not trust mail-in or absentee ballots," said Harris, 73, a retired event coordinator at Albany State University. "After the primary and the results were in, there were thousands of absentee ballots not counted."

Mistrust by Black voters runs deep and is tightly bound within the nation's dark past of slavery and institutional racism....

Black people endured poll taxes, tossed ballots, even lynchings by whites intent on keeping them from voting. Over the decades, that led to a deep suspicion of simply handing off a ballot to the post office. Black people were the demographic least likely to cast votes by mail in 2018, with only 11% using that method, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By comparison, 24% of whites and 27% of Latinos reported voting by mail that year.
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"Supreme Court's 'summer break' has become a series of consequential actions"<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113610>
Posted on August 1, 2020 9:06 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113610> by Richard Pildes<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=7>

>From Bob Barnes at the WP<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-courts-summer-break-has-become-a-series-of-consequential-actions/2020/07/31/93005f1c-d345-11ea-9038-af089b63ac21_story.html>:

But the court's customary summer lull? It never arrived.

Instead, responding to emergency pleas for intervention, the justices allowed federal executions to resume<https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/daniel-lewis-lee-execution-terre-haute-supreme-court/2020/07/14/18e3bf20-c5c7-11ea-b037-f9711f89ee46_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_6> for the first time in 17 years. They threw up a roadblock for former felons<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-deals-blow-to-felons-in-florida-seeking-to-regain-the-right-to-vote/2020/07/16/2ede827c-c5dd-11ea-a99f-3bbdffb1af38_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_6> in Florida who thought their voting rights had been restored. They denied challenges to coronavirus restrictions<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-denies-plea-from-nevada-church-that-it-is-hurt-while-casinos-reopen/2020/07/24/9b99cbf8-cc48-11ea-91f1-28aca4d833a0_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_6> on worship services in Nevada, and put on hold accommodations extended to Idaho residents hoping to collect signatures<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-reform-idaho-november-election/2020/07/30/e1568da4-d2a9-11ea-9038-af089b63ac21_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_6> for an education initiative.
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"Trump's own intelligence officials contradict his repeated claims of mail-in voting fraud"<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113605>
Posted on August 1, 2020 8:56 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113605> by Richard Pildes<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=7>

>From CCN<https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/31/politics/trump-intelligence-officials-contradict-mail-in-voting-sow-doubt-foreign/index.html>:

US intelligence officials on Friday discounted the possibility of foreign countries mass producing fake ballots to interfere in the November elections, contradicting President Donald Trump's continued insistence<https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/30/politics/trump-delay-election-fact-check/index.html> that mail-in voting poses a significant threat to election security. The closed-door House briefing was led by the US intelligence community's top election official, Bill Evanina, and senior intelligence officials who specialize in election security. Officials dismissed the possibility of foreign powers being able to interfere on a mass scale to produce and send fake ballots to voters and election authorities, a source said. The issue of forged ballots only came up when a lawmaker asked about it, a source in attendance told CNN. Evanina didn't raise any alarms about that possibility, the source said. . . .

"Mail-in voting has already become an issue among partisan political voices, which makes it a target for threat actors to exploit," the assessment read. "These threat actors may mislead and confuse the public about the mechanics of mail-in voting, and leverage limited understanding regarding mail-in voting processes, in order to cause chaos and provoke distrust in the election administration and electoral results."
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