[EL] ELB News and Commentary 12/8/20 (Safe Harbor Day)

[Rick Hasen]

“Voting rights groups alarmed after Cobb County reduced early-voting sites for Ga. Senate runoffs”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119386>
Posted on December 7, 2020 8:50 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119386> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo reports<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/12/07/voting-rights-groups-alarmed-after-cobb-county-reduced-early-voting-sites-ga-senate-runoffs/>.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


Super Interesting: In Rep. Kelly’s Case Seeking to Overturn PA Results for President, Brief from PA Republican Party Does NOT Support Argument Election Should Be Overturned<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119384>
Posted on December 7, 2020 8:41 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119384> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

This brief <https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20A98/162932/20201207191811200_20A98%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf> is so interesting. It does not even address the main argument made in Rep. Kelly’s brief that the PA Legislature acted unconstitutionally in passing its absentee voting law. I’ve explained it’s a nonsense argument<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119196>, but it’s the one being used by Kelly to argue for overturning the election.

The PA Republican Party does not say anything about this argument, or about the extraordinary and dangerous remedy that Rep. Kelly seeks. It instead picks up only the second argument, that the PA Supreme Court should not have rejected Kelly’s case on the basis of laches (unreasonable delay). The brief does not suggest a remedy, but a natural remedy for such a problem (if it presented a federal question, which it does not) would be a remand to consider the case on the merits, not throwing out the results of the election.

Why did the PA Republican Party do this? Probably because they felt they had to file something for political reasons, but they could not endorse the bananas theory which goes 180 degrees against the argument they make in another case pending before the Supreme Court (involving the 3 day extension of the deadline for the receipt of absentee ballots).
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Posted in Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“Trump asks Pennsylvania House speaker for help overturning election results, personally intervening in a third state”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119382>
Posted on December 7, 2020 5:50 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119382> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-pennsylvania-speaker-call/2020/12/07/d65fe8c4-38bf-11eb-98c4-25dc9f4987e8_story.html>

President Trump called the speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives twice during the past week to make an extraordinary request for help reversing his loss in the state, reflecting a broadening pressure campaign by the president and his allies to try to subvert the 2020 election result.

The calls, confirmed by House Speaker Bryan Cutler’s office, make Pennsylvania the third state where Trump has directly attempted to overturn a result since he lost the election to President-elect Joe Biden. He previously reached out to Republicans in Michigan, and on Saturday he pressured <https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-kemp-call-georgia/2020/12/05/fd8d677c-3721-11eb-8d38-6aea1adb3839_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_4> Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) in a call to try to replace that state’s electors.

The president’s outreach to Pennsylvania’s Republican House leader came after his campaign and its allies decisively lost numerous legal challenges in the state in both state and federal court. Trump has continued to press his baseless claims of widespread voting irregularities both publicly and privately.

“The president said, ‘I’m hearing about all these issues in Philadelphia, and these issues with your law,’ ” said Cutler spokesman Michael Straub, describing the House speaker’s two conversations with Trump. “ ‘What can we do to fix it?’ ”

A White House spokesman declined to comment on the calls to Cutler, and a Trump campaign spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Cutler told the president that the legislature had no power to overturn the state’s chosen slate of electors, Straub said.

But late last week, the House speaker was among about 60 Republican state lawmakers who sent a letter to Pennsylvania’s congressional representatives urging them to object <http://www.pahousegop.com/Display/SiteFiles/1/2020/120420CongressElection2020B.pdf> to the state’s electoral slate on Jan. 6, when Congress is set to formally accept the results.

Although such a move is highly unlikely <https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/12/04/how-trump-allies-congress-can-launch-one-more-challenge-bidens-win-january/?itid=lk_inline_manual_13> to gain traction, at least one Pennsylvania Republican, Rep. Scott Perry, said in an interview Monday that he will heed the request and dispute the state’s electors….

Trump stoked those flames Saturday at a rally<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/12/05/trump-obama-events-heat-up-georgia-senate-races-before-voter-registration-deadline/?itid=lk_inline_manual_18> for two Republican Senate candidates in Georgia, where he ranted for an hour and 40 minutes almost exclusively about fraud.

“We will find that hundreds of thousands of ballots were illegally cast in your state and all over the country, by the way, more than enough to give us a total historic victory,” Trump said. “This is our country . . . they are trying to take it from us through rigging, fraud, deception and deceit.”

He added, “Hopefully, our legislatures and the United States Supreme Court will step forward and save our country.”

Trump’s continued embrace of such rhetoric has prompted fresh alarm among Democrats and some Republicans, who fear that the president is inciting violence. And while his efforts to overturn the result are widely viewed as fruitless, many officials said they are distressed at the lasting harm they believe he is doing to public faith in U.S. elections….

“When it comes to lawsuits, we’re one for 33. All I can say is time is ticking,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a Trump ally who has promoted the president’s false accusations of fraud, said in an interview last week. “I told the president to keep fighting, but time matters. You’ve got to have a very coherent theory of the law. The burden of the proof is on the plaintiff.”

The outlook is similar inside the White House, where administration officials have begun discussing who will stay until Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration to help with the transition and who will leave before that date, according to people familiar with the conversations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions….

One official involved in the campaign said Trump spends almost all of his days obsessing over voter fraud and searching for ways to reverse his defeat. He has asked Giuliani and one of his campaign lawyers, Jenna Ellis, for more names of lawmakers he should be calling.

“He’s going to keep doing this until the 14th at the least,” one Republican involved in the operation said. “The president sees no advantage to stopping this.”
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Posted in Election Meltdown<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=127>, fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


“House conservatives urge Trump not to concede and press for floor fight over election loss”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119380>
Posted on December 7, 2020 5:41 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119380> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CNN<https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/07/politics/house-republicans-trump-biden/index.html>:

President Donald Trump<http://www.cnn.com/2020/12/07/politics/donald-trump-lawsuits-election/index.html>‘s staunchest defenders on Capitol Hill are urging him not to concede even after President-elect Joe Biden wins the Electoral College vote next week, calling on their party’s leader to battle it out all the way to the House floor in January as he makes unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud.

The view of Trump’s defenders is at odds with that of many top congressional Republicans, including leaders of the Senate, who believe the election will be over next Monday when electors cast their votes and make Biden’s win official — even though the Democrat’s victory in the presidential race has been clear for weeks.

But conservative House Republicans argue that next week doesn’t mark the end of Trump’s desperate efforts to overturn the election results, which he has failed to do through scores of fruitless lawsuits and brazen efforts to pressure state and local leaders to subvert the will of voters and appoint new slates of electors to the Electoral College. They said that Congress should engage in a full-throated debate over the results in key states because of their allegations of fraud, which have yet to be borne out in court.

Asked if Trump should concede next Monday, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said bluntly: “No. No way, no way, no way.”
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


“Brindisi-Tenney NY-22 congressional race: More votes found, election worker has COVID-19”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119378>
Posted on December 7, 2020 5:38 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119378> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

See here<https://www.uticaod.com/story/news/politics/elections/national/2020/12/07/ny-22-election-results-latest-twist-case-claudia-tenney-anthony-brindisi-certify-votes-found-covid/6479038002/>.

And see Still no ruling in Brindisi-Tenney election, but judge’s comments give hints about what could come next<https://www.syracuse.com/politics/2020/12/still-no-ruling-in-brindisi-tenney-election-but-judges-comments-give-hints-about-what-could-come-next.html>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


Carter Phillips and Bipartisan Group of Heavy Hitters (including Sen. Danforth) File Supreme Court Brief Rejecting Bush v. Gore Concurrence/Independent State Legislature Doctrine in PA case<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119376>
Posted on December 7, 2020 11:32 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119376> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

This brief<https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20A98/162823/20201207125419788_2020-12-7%20Amici%20-%20combined.pdf> will get attention at the Court. See especially the discussion at pages 9-11.
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Posted in Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


Some Republican PA Legislators in Their Personal Capacities File Supreme Court Brief Asking Court to Hear Kelly Case<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119373>
Posted on December 7, 2020 11:30 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119373> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Weak sauce.<https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20A98/162797/20201207110117475_20A98%20General%20Assembly%20amicus.pdf>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“The Trump campaign legal efforts may be coming to an end, sources say”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119371>
Posted on December 7, 2020 11:25 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119371> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CNN:<https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/07/politics/donald-trump-lawsuits-election/index.html?utm_term=image&utm_source=twCNNp&utm_content=2020-12-07T17%3A53%3A04&utm_medium=social>

There is a sense developing within Donald Trump’s<http://www.cnn.com/specials/politics/president-donald-trump-45> legal team and what remains of his campaign staff that their efforts to overturn or delay the results of the election are coming to an end, multiple sources tell CNN, despite what the President has said publicly.

Trump said in a 46-minute video released last week that they would continue to file lawsuits, but his legal team has held fewer meetings and strategy calls in the last several days.

Following the news of Rudy Giuliani’s coronavirus hospitalization<http://www.cnn.com/2020/12/06/politics/rudy-giuliani-coronavirus-positive/index.html>, staffers only speculated further that it’s a matter of time before their legal efforts come to a halt completely. Giuliani is currently expected to appear via Zoom in front of a hearing with Georgia House delegates Thursday, though whether he ultimately does will depend on his condition, a source said.

Officials are also aware they are rapidly approaching deadlines that will certify results of the election and final rulings in some of their legal challenges.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


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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