[EL] ELB News and Commentary 9/1/20

[Rick Hasen]

Texas: “Paxton sues to halt Harris County’s plan to send all voters a mail ballot application”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114640>
Posted on August 31, 2020 7:58 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114640> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Houston Chronicle reports<https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Paxton-sues-to-halt-Harris-County-s-plan-to-15528698.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Premium)&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral>.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D114640&title=Texas%3A%20%E2%80%9CPaxton%20sues%20to%20halt%20Harris%20County%E2%80%99s%20plan%20to%20send%20all%20voters%20a%20mail%20ballot%20application%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Twitter changing labeling practices after deceptive videos hit Biden”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114638>
Posted on August 31, 2020 7:55 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114638> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Politico<https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/31/twitter-doctored-video-policy-biden-406632>:

Twitter said Monday it will begin displaying warning labels on shared posts that contain misleading or doctored videos after facing complaints that it failed to do enough to limit the spread of deceptive clips targeting Joe Biden’s campaign.

Key context: The social network in recent days has slapped labels on tweets by prominent Republican officials that contained deceptively edited or altered videos, including posts by House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana<https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/31/politics/twitter-scalise-tweet-manipulated-media/index.html>, White House social media director Dan Scavino<https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-fall-asleep-during-interview/?fbclid=IwAR3X099bpEMKw_L9XooIwMC985PW0inIOaCo6GusXqiZR21fBFkns_EZ5Jo> and the reelection campaign for President Donald Trump.

On Monday, the Trump campaign tweeted a truncated clip of Biden saying, “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.” The clip was in fact from a speech in which Biden said Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were making that argument. The full quote from the speech: “Trump and Pence are running on this, and I find it fascinating: Quote, ‘You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.’ And what’s their proof? The violence we’re seeing in Donald Trump’s America.”

Twitter later added a “manipulated media” label to the tweet.

What’s changing: Until now, the labels did not appear when users shared the posts through what the platform calls “quote tweets ”— retweets with added comment from another user. Kayvon Beykpour, Twitter’s head of product, said in a tweet that the company started rolling out a fix Monday to address the issue, which he called “a gap in implementation” of its policy against so-called manipulated media.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D114638&title=%E2%80%9CTwitter%20changing%20labeling%20practices%20after%20deceptive%20videos%20hit%20Biden%E2%80%9D>
Posted in cheap speech<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=130>


Federal District Court Rejects Challenge to Georgia Law on Limits to Third Party Collection of Absentee Ballots, But Extends Deadline for Receipt of Postmarked Absentee Ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114636>
Posted on August 31, 2020 3:32 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114636> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Here is the opinion.<https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2020/07/PI-Order-GA-4-Pillars.pdf> The court rejected other challenges to Georgia law as well, but the extension of the time for receipt of ballots is significant given how late Georgia voters can request and receive absentee ballots and given potential delays in having USPS deliver ballots on time. AJC says<https://www.ajc.com/politics/judge-extends-georgia-deadline-to-return-absentee-ballots/OEETBUYMWJASHCW3YMVCKTPPYI/> “The decision<https://www.ajc.com/politics/judge-considers-whether-to-change-georgia-absentee-ballot-deadline/BQ4RW3VNGZGFXOYUKCK3JGWPHE/> will likely result in tens of thousands of ballots being counted after Nov. 3 that would have otherwise been rejected, enough to swing close elections.”

AJC also says the state will immediately appeal, and I think there is a fairly good chance of a reversal of the extension time granted by the district court.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D114636&title=Federal%20District%20Court%20Rejects%20Challenge%20to%20Georgia%20Law%20on%20Limits%20to%20Third%20Party%20Collection%20of%20Absentee%20Ballots%2C%20But%20Extends%20Deadline%20for%20Receipt%20of%20Postmarked%20Absentee%20Ballots>
Posted in absentee ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>


--
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/>


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20200901/dde24754/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2021 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20200901/dde24754/attachment.png>