[EL] ELB News and Commentary 12/17/20

[Rick Hasen]

“Pence prepares to confirm Trump’s loss — and then leave town”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119741>
Posted on December 17, 2020 6:45 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119741> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Politico:<https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/17/pence-trump-election-loss-447326>

As vice president, Pence has the awkward but unavoidable duty of presiding over the session of Congress that will formalize Biden’s Electoral College victory — a development that is likely to expose him and other Republicans to the wrath of GOP voters who believe President Donald Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen from him.

But Pence could dodge their ire by leaving Washington immediately for the Middle East and Europe. According to three U.S. officials familiar with the planning, the vice president is eyeing a foreign trip that would take him overseas for nearly a week, starting on Jan. 6…

It’s a tactic Pence has used to navigate the final days of Trump’s presidency: stay out of the spotlight and insulate himself from his boss’s baseless election-fraud crusade, all while still finding ways to burnish his own credentials and technically toe the party line…
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“New Supreme Court filing includes blatantly wrong information about Michigan”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119739>
Posted on December 17, 2020 6:37 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119739> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Detroit Free Press<https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/16/new-supreme-court-filing-blatantly-wrong-information-michigan/3920800001/>:

A long-shot legal effort<https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/12/former-trump-attorney-supreme-court-hear-michigan-case/6521609002/> relying on conspiracy theories and inaccurate analyses to argue President Donald Trump actually won Michigan included additional blatantly false<https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/15/trump-fact-check-defect-voting-machines-michigan/3902951001/> information in a new filing <https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/20-815.html> with the U.S. Supreme Court this week.

The legal team, including attorney Sidney Powell, told the court the Republican-controlled Michigan Legislature backs its effort to allow a so-called GOP slate <https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/14/michigans-electoral-college-16-votes-joe-biden-kamala-harris/6538683002/> of Electoral College delegates cast the state’s 16 electoral votes for Trump.

This is wrong. On Monday, Republican leaders of the Michigan House and Senate<https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/14/michigan-gop-shirkey-chatfield-electoral-college-vote/6541772002/> publicly acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden won the election. The same day, the state’s actual 16 Electoral College delegates voted for Biden, who received 154,000 more votes than Trump in Michigan.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


Nevada: “Clark County Commission votes to certify recount results, 15-vote victory for Democrat Ross Miller”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119737>
Posted on December 17, 2020 6:35 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119737> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Nevada Independent reports.<https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/clark-county-commission-votes-to-certify-recount-results-15-vote-victory-for-democrat-ross-miller>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“He Wanted to Count Every Vote in Philadelphia. His Party Had Other Ideas.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119735>
Posted on December 17, 2020 6:34 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119735> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT Mag<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/16/magazine/trump-election-philadelphia-republican.html?smid=tw-share> profiles Philly’s Al Schmidt.
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Posted in election law biz<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=51>, Election Meltdown<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=127>




“Ron Johnson’s last hearing as chair of the Senate homeland security committee unfolds in post-election acrimony”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119733>
Posted on December 16, 2020 6:11 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119733> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:<https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/16/senate-hearing-election-leads-acrimony-over-fraud-allegations/3923137001/>

Ron Johnson’s final hearing as chairman of the Senate homeland security committee was a divisive and bitter one, devolving at one point Wednesday into a near shouting match between the Wisconsin Republican and the panel’s top Democrat, Gary Peters of Michigan.

“This is terrible what you’re doing to this committee,” Peters exclaimed to Johnson.

“It is what you have done to this committee,” Johnson answered heatedly.

The subject of that angry exchange — the two accused each other of spreading falsehoods — was the role of Russian disinformation, a source of bitter partisan feuding ever since the 2016 election.

It was the 2020 election that was the official subject of Wednesday’s hearing. And that provided plenty of acrimony as senators on both sides took turns airing their grievances about the presidential contest and its aftermath.   …

At one point, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, asserted the “election in many ways was stolen,” an unfounded claim that has been repeatedly rejected by conservative and liberal judges and election officials around the country.

Trump applauded Johnson on Twitter<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1339275859841134594> during the hearing, and claimed baselessly<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1339281950490697729> that “Massive FRAUD took place with machines, people voting from out of state, illegals, dead people, no signatures—and so much more!”

Johnson himself made a far less sweeping argument — that there was some unknown incidence of fraud, but it hadn’t been shown to have occurred on a scale that would have changed the outcome.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


“Trump’s Last Gasp Will Fail”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119731>
Posted on December 16, 2020 9:20 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119731> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Jerry Goldfeder NYDN oped<https://www.stroock.com/uploads/NYDN-JG-Trumps-last-gasp-will-fail.pdf>:

Biden shouldn’t worry. Even if Trump supporters can get the required members of Congress to sign on to such objections, and the safe harbor protections are ignored, these protests will still not change the outcome.

That’s because both the House and Senate have to approve any objection, and that will not happen. The new Congress is seated on Jan. 3. The House, controlled by Democrats, will reject any objection. The make-up of the Senate, meanwhile, is still up for grabs. If both Democrats clearly win the Georgia run-offs on Jan. 5, the Senate will be 50-50. It is doubtful that Pence is legally able to break a tie in this circumstance, but if he tries to, or if the Democrats don’t prevail in the previous day’s elections, the Senate will be Republican. No matter what, though, it is hard to believe that enough Republican senators would approve the objection to Pennsylvania’s slate — and it will, therefore, be defeated in both chambers.
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Posted in electoral college<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=44>



--
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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