[EL] ELB News and Commentary 8/27/20

[Rick Hasen]

“Despite uncertainty, Democrats bet big on mail voting in Pennsylvania”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114503>
Posted on August 27, 2020 8:44 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114503> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

McClatchy:<https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article245279405.html>

Democrats in one of the most pivotal battleground states are pushing past concerns about the efficiency of the Postal Service and making voting by mail a centerpiece of their election mobilization strategy.

Despite a president who has continually maligned the process, Republican lawsuits aimed at restricting the practice, and an edict<https://www.vox.com/2020/8/18/21373177/michelle-obama-dnc-2020-speech-voting-post-office> from former First Lady Michelle Obama at last week’s Democratic National Convention to “vote in person if we can,” Pennsylvania Democrats have settled on a concerted effort to urge their voters to cast ballots through the mail — a campaign that already appears to be paying dividends.

Democrats in Pennsylvania account for two-thirds of the 1.3 million mail ballot requests that have already been made, according to a top Democratic political data firm<https://twitter.com/tbonier/status/1298217561327382529>. Unlike some western states that have voted by mail for several election cycles and Florida, which has used the practice for nearly two decades, Pennsylvania is entering uncharted waters this fall, as a no-excuse mail voting law was first signed last October.

“I have utter confidence and I have to say that in the face of a president who is doing everything in his power to undermine our Postal Service,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Democrat who represents the Philadelphia suburbs. “What I have confidence in is the postal workers themselves. They are public servants and they’re going to get the job done.”

Leading Democratic Party figures in Pennsylvania emphasize that although mail voting is the focal point of their strategy, they are still preparing to encourage their voters to submit their ballots in a variety of ways — part of a complicated, well-funded campaign in a state whose voters have traditionally turned out on Election Day only.

The multi-pronged effort is a partial acknowledgment that some voters — particularly in the African American community — are wary about the reliability of the post office and insistent that they vote in the way they always have, these Democrats say. A Muhlenberg College poll<https://www.mcall.com/news/pennsylvania/capitol-ideas/mc-nws-pa-morning-call-muhlenberg-poll-takeaways-20200824-cncgbusobbgnjiiyrb6ji7ixpe-story.html?ac_cid=DM267346&ac_bid=1896006295#nws=true> released last week found that 64% of all Pennsylvania voters still said they intended to cast their ballot in person.

But Democratic leaders also contend they’ve remedied the issues that plagued them in the June primary<https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pa-mail-ballot-deadlines-disenfranchisement-20200730.html> when election officials were overwhelmed by a deluge of mail-in ballot requests during the coronavirus pandemic. It was the first time the state had conducted a mail-in election since a new law authorized the procedure last year and the surge in requests ultimately delayed the tabulation process, which in Philadelphia continued for close to two weeks.

Dean said in Montgomery County — the third-largest in the state — commissioners have since used federal funds from the Cares Act to add eight staffers and more technology to help process the vote faster.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Black voters are being targeted in disinformation campaigns, echoing the 2016 Russian playbook”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114501>
Posted on August 27, 2020 8:41 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114501> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/08/26/race-divisions-highlighted-disinformation-2016/>

Four years after Russian operatives used social media in a bid to exacerbate racial divisions in the United States<https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/russian-operatives-used-facebook-ads-to-exploit-divisions-over-black-political-activism-and-muslims/2017/09/25/4a011242-a21b-11e7-ade1-76d061d56efa_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_2> and suppress Black voter turnout, such tactics have spread across a wide range of deceptive online campaigns operated from numerous nations — including from within the United States itself.

The potency and persistence of the racial playbook was highlighted this week when Twitter deleted an account featuring a profile photo of a young Black man claiming to be a former Black Lives Matter protester who switched his allegiance to the Republican Party.

The account, @WentDemtoRep, offered an online testimonial Sunday — the eve of a Republican convention featuring prominent African Americans<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/black-trump-supporters-republican-convention/2020/08/25/fadeb30e-e600-11ea-970a-64c73a1c2392_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_5> challenging allegations of racism against President Trump — and was retweeted 22,000 times. Disinformation researcher Marc Owen Jones<https://twitter.com/marcowenjones/status/1298489077164118017>, of Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, found the tweet had 39,000 likes just 19 hours after it was posted.

Twitter removed the account Tuesday for policy violations after it had amassed 15,000 followers despite tweeting just a few times, all this month. The rapid spread of the tweet underscored how easily deceptive messages spread online — and how far they can get before social media companies are able to curb them.

“I’ve been a Democrat my whole life,” the tweet said, according to archived versions showing that the account was created this month, supposedly from Arizona. “I joined the BLM protests months ago when they began. They opened my eyes wide! I didn’t realize I became a Marxist. It happened w/o me even knowing it. I’m done with this trash. I’ll be registering Republican.”

Twitter suspended the account and several others that posted similar messages for violating rules about “platform manipulation and spam,” said a company spokesman, Trenton Kennedy. The company provided no other details of who created the account. In dozens of cases, the text from the original message was pasted directly into tweets of other accounts.
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Posted in cheap speech<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=130>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“Political Giving Should Be Private; Americans of both parties worry they’ll be canceled for making donations to a campaign or cause.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114499>
Posted on August 27, 2020 8:38 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114499> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Brad Smith WSJ oped.<https://www.wsj.com/articles/political-giving-should-be-private-11598483084?st=mgjoedh70u7ok0t&reflink=article_email_share>
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>


“Republican National Congressional Committee Sues to Remove Most Texas Libertarian Congressional Candidates from Ballot”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114496>
Posted on August 27, 2020 8:37 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114496> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

BAN reports.<http://ballot-access.org/2020/08/27/republican-national-congressional-committee-sues-to-remove-most-texas-libertarian-congressional-candidates-from-ballot/>
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Posted in ballot access<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=46>


“Alabama ‘It should have been long ago’: majority-Black US city elects first Black officials; Alabama’s Pleasant Grove held landmark election after two residents sued to change its discriminatory voting system in 2018”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114493>
Posted on August 27, 2020 8:36 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114493> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Guardian reports <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/26/pleasant-grove-alabama-city-council-majority-black> on the cumulative voting remedy for a VRA violation.
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Posted in alternative voting systems<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=63>, Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>


“Attitudes on Voting in 2020 Preparing for Elections During a Pandemic”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114490>
Posted on August 27, 2020 8:34 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114490> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Latest<https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA112-9.html?utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=NPA:2542:6313:Aug%2027,%202020%205:48:46%20AM%20PDT&utm_campaign=NPA:2542:6313:Aug%2027,%202020%205:48:46%20AM%20PDT> from RAND.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“How the Right to Vote Became Fundamental”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114488>
Posted on August 27, 2020 8:31 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114488> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

David Gans:<https://takecareblog.com/blog/how-the-right-to-vote-became-fundamental>

A century ago, the Nineteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution, prohibiting state-sponsored voting discrimination on account of sex, and women’s status as equal citizens was formally etched in the Constitution’s text.  What is less well known is that the Nineteenth Amendment also helped cement the idea that the right to vote is a fundamental right inherent in citizenship.

For America’s first 150 years, the exclusion of half the population from participation in the electorate stood firmly in the way of viewing the right to vote as a fundamental right.  When, in the wake of Civil War, the Constitution was first amended to protect the right to vote, it drew a sharp line between men and women.  All citizens did not have a fundamental right to vote.  After all, women were citizens and, as Reconstruction congressmen<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=252495> repeatedly argued, [w]omen do not vote<https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llcg&fileName=099/llcg099.db&recNum=691>.”  Although a “woman is as much a citizen as a man,” when it came to the right to vote, the Reconstruction Framers took the view that states “may still discriminate<https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llcg&fileName=101/llcg101.db&recNum=824>.”  In short, instead of being a fundamental right, voting was viewed as a privilege that could be given to men and denied to women, who were deemed to be represented by men “at the polls and in the affairs of Government<https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llcg&fileName=075/llcg075.db&recNum=69>.”

Indeed, in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment explicitly wrote this cramped view of democracy into the Constitution by imposing a penalty of reduced congressional representation on states that denied or abridged the right to vote to any of its “male” citizens.  In 1870, at the very moment when the Fifteenth Amendment first recognized that the right to vote was necessary to make real the promise of freedom and equal citizenship for Black men, our national charter underscored that women had no claim to the ballot and could be relegated to second-class status.  The Reconstruction Framers, time and again, took it as a given that women would be indirectly represented by their “fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons to whom the right of suffrage is given<https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llcg&fileName=075/llcg075.db&recNum=69>.”

Women’s rights activists of the 1860s and 1870s, however, rejected the idea that our foundational promises of democracy, freedom, and equality were real if half the population could be excluded from voting…
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Posted in 19th Amendment<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=128>


“Could It Be Bush v. Gore All Over Again? The scenarios that keep me up at night.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114486>
Posted on August 27, 2020 8:28 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114486> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Linda Greenhouse NYT column<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/opinion/trump-biden-2020-supreme-court.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage>.
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Posted in Bush v. Gore reflections<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=5>


“How likely is it that your mail-in ballot won’t get counted? It’s riskier than voting in person.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114484>
Posted on August 27, 2020 8:26 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114484> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Charles Stewart<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/25/how-likely-is-it-that-your-mail-in-ballot-wont-get-counted/> at the Monkey Cage:

In an article<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3660625> forthcoming in the Harvard Data Science Review, I have worked to quantify how much riskier it is for someone to vote by mail than in person. Depending on the state in which a citizen is voting, the increased risk of having your vote lost — meaning, not counted in the election — ranges from 3.5 percent to 4.9 percent.

“Lost votes” is a term coined by the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project (VTP)<http://www.vote.caltech.edu/> in its 2001 report “Voting: What Is/What Could Be<https://vote.caltech.edu/reports/1>.” Here’s what it means. Suppose a voter wakes up on Election Day, fully intending to vote, and does everything required to do so. If the intention is thwarted, that is a lost vote. For instance, she might arrive at the polls at 6 p.m. and finds the line is so long that she leaves and can’t return to cast a ballot by 7 p.m. when the polls close.

If she intends to vote by mail, here’s what might go wrong. In states where a voter must apply for a mail ballot, the ballot application could get lost in the mail; the local election office could lose the application or deny it; the ballot might not make it back to the voter, for instance, getting lost in the mail; and the marked ballot might not make it from the voter back to the local election office. Even if the ballot arrives, it could be rejected because it arrived late or lacked a signature — the two most common reasons for rejection. Finally, the ballot could have an error that she could have caught had she voted in person.
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Posted in absentee ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>


“Don Jr. robocall urges supporters to vote by mail”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114482>
Posted on August 26, 2020 4:30 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114482> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Politico:<https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/26/donald-trump-jr-vote-mail-robocall-402503>

Donald Trump Jr. is urging voters to cast absentee ballots in robocalls detected across the nation Wednesday — even as his father continues to rail against widespread mail-in voting.

The robocalls<https://www.nomorobo.com/lookup/223-201-7188>, which reference this week’s Republican National Convention have been deployed in 13 states — Arizona, Florida, Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, Georgia, Texas and Maine — all states the Trump campaign is targeting. They indicate that either the Trump campaign or Republican National Committee has already mailed absentee-ballot requests to those being called.

“President Trump is counting on you to make a plan to return your absentee ballot request. Voting absentee is a safe and secure way to guarantee your voice is heard,” Trump Jr. says in the calls. “Help President Trump make America great again by joining him in being an absentee voter this year.”

It’s just one of the ways<https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/19/republicans-mail-in-voting-trump-398774> the Trump campaign is pushing voters to cast mail-in ballots. It has been targeting counties in battleground states where absentee ballots made a difference in 2016, urging supporters through a website<https://vote.gop/> to request ballots and running Facebook ads<https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=all&ad_type=political_and_issue_ads&country=US&impression_search_field=has_impressions_lifetime&id=304660444287558&view_all_page_id=153080620724> that state “Absentee ballots are GOOD. I need you to get your application and send in your absentee ballot IMMEDIATELY.” President Donald Trump even requested an absentee ballot himself<https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/13/trump-requests-mail-in-ballot-395164> to vote in Florida’s recent primary.

Trump’s assault<https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/08/trump-wants-to-cut-mail-in-voting-the-republican-machine-is-helping-him-392428> on mail-in voting began in the spring, when he started warning there would be massive voter fraud if much of the country voted remotely, despite no evidence to back up the claims. The Republican Party and the Trump campaign have since filed lawsuits to restrict mail-in-voting measures in numerous states. Trump occasionally tries to distinguish between mail-in ballots and absentee ballots, saying the latter have additional safeguards and go only to those who request them. But election officials say the ballots look identical. Some states even use the names interchangeably or use a single term for all mail-in ballots.

Particularly interesting to encourage vote by mail in a state like Texas, which requires an excuse (or a voter be 65 or older).
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Posted in absentee ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>, fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


“US intelligence officials say there’s no evidence to back up Trump’s claims about threats to mail-in voting”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114480>
Posted on August 26, 2020 3:36 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114480> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CNN<https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/26/politics/election-security-officials-mail-in-voting-trump/index.html>:

US officials charged with protecting the 2020 election said Wednesday they have “no information or intelligence” that foreign countries, including Russia, are attempting to undermine any part of the mail-in voting process<https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/20/politics/trump-election-disinformation-natsec-agencies/index.html>, contradicting President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly pushed false claims <https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/31/politics/trump-intelligence-officials-contradict-mail-in-voting-sow-doubt-foreign/index.html> that foreign adversaries are targeting mail ballots as part of a “rigged” presidential race.

Specifically, a senior intelligence official discounted the possibility of foreign actors mass producing fake ballots to interfere in the November elections, again breaking with Trump who has continued to insist that mail-in voting poses a significant threat to election security.

“We have no information or intelligence that any nation state threat actor is engaging in activity … to undermine any part of the mail-in vote or ballots,” the official told reporters.

However, senior officials declined to discuss Russia’s efforts to seize upon the President’s attempts to sow mistrust and doubt about the mail in voting process.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


“Standing Rock Sioux Tribe partners with Lakota People’s Law Project, Senator Udall, Representative Luján to forward Native American Voting Rights Act”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114478>
Posted on August 26, 2020 3:30 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114478> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Release.<https://indiancountrytoday.com/the-press-pool/standing-rock-sioux-tribe-partners-with-lakota-people-s-law-project-senator-udall-representative-luj%C3%A1n-to-forward-native-american-voting-rights-act-48R8thNJx0eeXtaXT4U6tw>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Conservatives boost efforts to target voter rolls in battleground states”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114476>
Posted on August 26, 2020 1:19 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114476> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Fredreka Schouten for CNN<https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/26/politics/2020-election-voter-rolls-swing-states/index.html>:

A nonprofit group tied to influential conservatives who worked closely with President Donald Trump<https://www.cnn.com/specials/politics/president-donald-trump-45> to elevate two Supreme Court justices<https://www.cnn.com/specials/politics/supreme-court-nine> is urging key states to clean up their voting rolls — a practice voting-rights groups and Democrats argue seeks to “purge” legitimate voters.

The Honest Elections Project, as the group is known, is supporting a lawsuit against Michigan<https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/primaries-caucuses/state/michigan> — where Trump won in 2016 by fewer than 11,000 votes — that claims the state has an “impossibly high” high voter registration rate.

Lawyers working with Honest Elections also have sent letters this year threatening legal action over what it views as bloated voter registration rolls to officials in three other political battlegrounds: North Carolina, Florida and Colorado.Work by the group, led by former Heritage Foundation policy analyst Jason Snead, is part of the stepped-up activity among conservative groups to push back on efforts, largely in Democratic-run states, to expand mail-in voting, extend deadlines for counting mailed ballots and otherwise relax voting rules amid the coronavirus pandemic…

Honest Elections, which began its work earlier this year, is part of a network established by Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo and the conservative allies who have helped Trump advance the appointment of conservative judges to the federal bench, public records analyzed<https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/05/conservative-dark-money-network-voting-restrict/> by nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics and The Guardian show.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“In Lieu of Fun Show” Today on Voting and the Election<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114471>
Posted on August 26, 2020 11:52 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114471> by Richard Pildes<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=7>

At 5pm EST today, I’ll be talking with Ben Wittes and Kate Klonick on their fun program of informal conversations that substitute for the fun we can’t be having right now. We’ll discuss voting issues and lots of other subjects. Here is Ben’s tweet on the show:

Benjamin “18 U.S.C. § 114” Wittes at benjaminwittes<https://twitter.com/benjaminwittes>.

Today on @inlieuoffunshow<https://twitter.com/inlieuoffunshow>, it’s election law and national security expert Rick Pildes. Join him and @klonick<https://twitter.com/Klonick> and me at 5:00 pm Eastern! On Crowdcast: https://crowdcast.io/e/in-lieu-of-fun-episode-47<https://t.co/CcFJqwt8GQ?amp=1>

On YouTube: https://youtu.be/LO2nnELFW4M<https://t.co/sc7FcTHQmm?amp=1>

On Facebook or on Twitter.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


Michigan: “Judge: Benson has power to mail absentee ballot applications”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114464>
Posted on August 26, 2020 8:25 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114464> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Detroit News:<https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/08/26/michigan-judge-benson-had-authority-mail-absentee-ballot-applications/3442877001/>

A Michigan Court of Claims judge dismissed Wednesday a suit challenging Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s decision to mail absentee ballot applications to every registered voter in Michigan ahead of the August and November elections.

The court in June had denied a preliminary injunction seeking an immediate stay on the mailing. But Benson asked the court to dismiss the case, a request the court granted Wednesday.

As the state’s chief election officer, Benson has the authority that outranks “those local election officials over whom she has supervisory control” and thus was able legally to send the applications where no such request had been made, Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens said.

“Given the ubiquitous attention paid to the importance of social distancing and limiting large gatherings, particularly indoor gatherings, the notion that it would be ‘advisable’ to inform this state’s electorate of its constitutional right to vote by absentee ballot, as opposed to in-person voting, cannot reasonably be disputed,” wrote Stephens, an appointee for Democratic former Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
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Posted in absentee ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>


“Far fewer white voters had their mail ballots rejected than non-white voters” in Georgia Primary; Most rejected for Being Late<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114462>
Posted on August 26, 2020 7:26 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114462> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Brennan Center analysis<https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/digging-georgia-primary>:

On June 9, voters in Georgia cast their ballots in the presidential local primary contests, as well as two seats for the state supreme court. In the lead-up to the contest, we analyzed<https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/whos-requesting-mail-ballots-georgias-upcoming-primary> discrepancies in who was requesting mail absentee ballots. Past research had indicated that racial minorities were less likely to request mail ballots than other voters; we showed that, at least in Georgia, those trends held true even during a pandemic when all voters were sent absentee ballot request forms.

Today, we examine data from the Georgia primary that sheds light on why – and whose – mail ballots are rejected, and also who took advantage of early in-person options. We find that:
1.       Far fewer white voters had their mail ballots rejected than non-white voters.
2.       For all racial groups, most rejected ballots were rejected because they were received after the deadline.
3.       Black voters were slightly more likely to vote early and in-person than white voters.
4.       Nearly 9 percent of voters who requested mail ballots voted in-person. This was especially common among Black voters.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“ABA joins NASS and NASED to mobilize lawyers as poll workers for Election Day”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114460>
Posted on August 26, 2020 7:19 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114460> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Release<https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2020/08/aba-joins-nass-and-nased-to-mobilize-lawyers-as-poll-workers-for/>:

The American Bar Association is partnering with the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) and the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) to issue a “Rally Cry” aimed at mobilizing lawyers to assist as poll workers for the upcoming 2020 election. The Poll Worker, Esq. Initiative encourages lawyers, law students and other legal professionals to safely assist in the November election by serving as poll workers….
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“Social Media and Democracy The State of the Field, Prospects for Reform”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114458>
Posted on August 26, 2020 6:54 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114458> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Can’t wait to dig into this volume<https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/E79E2BBF03C18C3A56A5CC393698F117/9781108835558AR.pdf/Social_Media_and_Democracy.pdf?event-type=FTLA> edited by Nate Persily and Joshua Tucker, with free access from Cambridge. Thanks Cambridge!
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, cheap speech<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=130>, social media and social protests<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=58>


“BPC Issues Recommendations to Enhance Legitimacy of November Vote Counting”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114456>
Posted on August 26, 2020 6:51 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114456> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Bipartisan Policy Center<https://bipartisanpolicy.org/press-release/bpc-issues-recommendations-to-enhance-legitimacy-of-november-vote-counting/>:

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Task Force on Elections—comprised of state and local elections officials across the country—released a set of recommendations<https://bipartisanpolicy.org/report/counting-the-vote-during-the-2020-election/> today to improve the vote counting process in November, noting that this year ballot counting and results reporting will take longer than usual amid the COVID-19 crisis.

“Election officials and policymakers continue to adapt the election process to keep voters safe during the pandemic, but one area that has not gotten enough attention is how votes will be counted,” says Rachel Orey, a research analyst at BPC’s Elections Project. “This new report<https://bipartisanpolicy.org/report/counting-the-vote-during-the-2020-election/> contains pragmatic recommendations to improve the counting process and responds to major legitimacy concerns, including absentee ballot security and delayed election results.”

Specifically, the report—called Counting the Vote During the 2020 Election<https://bipartisanpolicy.org/report/counting-the-vote-during-the-2020-election/>—urges election officials to do eight things to improve the legitimacy, accuracy, and expediency of their vote counting process: remove excessive absentee ballot verification measures; allow sufficient time for voters to fix deficiencies in by-mail ballots; request additional contact details from voters and restrict them from public disclosure; allow the processing of ballots to begin at least seven days before Election Day; rely on automated processes for unofficial results reporting; communicate changes to the public; follow CDC guidelines for safe in-person voting; and consider new, socially distanced ways to distribute teams that conduct signature verification and canvassing.

While the report contains recommendations for election officials, its detailed and informed discussion of vote counting procedures is also meant to enhance public discourse on election legitimacy.

Read the full report.<https://bipartisanpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Counting-the-Vote-During-the-2020-Election-Bipartisan-Policy-Center-August-2020.pdf>
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“Hundreds of Thousands of Nursing Home Residents May Not Be Able to Vote in November Because of the Pandemic”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114454>
Posted on August 26, 2020 6:49 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114454> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

ProPublica<https://www.propublica.org/article/hundreds-of-thousands-of-nursing-home-residents-may-not-be-able-to-vote-in-november-because-of-the-pandemic>:

How to vote during a pandemic poses a dilemma for many Americans, who worry about the health risks of voting in person and whether the U.S. Postal Service will be able to deliver mail-in ballots on time. Such concerns are multiplied for nursing home residents.

Most, though not all, of the roughly 2.2 million Americans living in nursing homes or assisted living communities are elderly — and thus at higher risk of dying from the coronavirus. They’re also part of the most politically engaged demographic in the country. In 2018, 66% of Americans over 65 voted<https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/04/behind-2018-united-states-midterm-election-turnout.html>, compared with just 35% of those 18 to 29. In 2016, Donald Trump had an advantage over Hillary Clinton among voters 65 and older by 53% to 44%, according to the Pew Research Center.

At least 68,000 residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic outbreak began, some 41% of all coronavirus deaths in the U.S., according to a New York Times analysis<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-nursing-homes.html>. This ongoing crisis at care facilities across the country has had a troubling hidden effect: the looming mass disenfranchisement of America’s elderly and disabled. Hutchins is one of hundreds of thousands of residents of nursing homes and assisted living communities who may not be not able to vote this year because of coronavirus related-lockdowns and the failure of state and county officials to help a forgotten population of voters.

Family and friends who helped them vote in prior elections can’t visit them — and may have taken ill or died from COVID-19 themselves. Swing states such as Florida and Wisconsin have suspended efforts to send teams to nursing homes to assist with voting. Despite a federal law that residents must be “supported by the facility in the exercise of” their rights, two states — North Carolina and Louisiana — prohibit staff from actively doing so. While many other states allow voters to appoint a helper of their choice, voting assistance may be a low priority for understaffed institutions struggling with COVID-19 outbreaks. And polling places are being moved from nursing homes and assisted living facilities to sites less affected by the virus. For example, Somerville, Massachusetts, relocated voting from a nursing home to a school a little less than a mile away.

“The hurdles are so high for people that are living in long-term care facilities — people who don’t have access to or who need different levels of help,” said Lori Smetanka, executive director of the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, an advocacy group. “I really think disenfranchising that entire population — we’re in real danger of that at this point.”

Under federal law, nursing homes have a duty to facilitate residents’ rights, including voting, said Nina Kohn, a distinguished scholar in elder law at Yale University. But even before the pandemic, compliance was spotty. From 2018 through 2019, Medicare documented complaints from at least 55 U.S. nursing homes in which residents said they weren’t given the opportunity to vote or were unable to get help casting a ballot. But nursing home inspectors categorized the vast majority of these complaints as low severity, meaning they were seen as inflicting little or no actual harm.

As a result, fines for violating residents’ voting rights are rare. Nursing home inspectors, Kohn said, do not take such violations seriously. “What you have is a system where the deprivation of our fundamental civil liberties never arises as being classified as real harm,” she said. “You’ve got a whole category of violations where there are virtually no consequences.”

Some nursing homes have begun adjusting procedures ahead of Nov. 3. Chris Hannon, the chief operating officer of Pointe Group Care, a nursing home operator in Massachusetts, said his staff is working to ensure residents are mailed absentee ballots. Although he hasn’t seen problems, “it becomes as challenging of a job as any other responsibility that we have,” he said.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Election Regulation during the COVID-19 Pandemic”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114452>
Posted on August 26, 2020 6:46 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114452> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Legal Policy Bulletin from Cato<https://www.cato.org/publications/legal-policy-bulletin/election-regulation-during-covid-19-pandemic>.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

--
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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