[EL] ELB News and Commentary 2/15/20

Sat Feb 15 09:56:12 PST 2020

“Election Meltdown, Part 4. Rhetoric and reality: When is it OK to say an election was ‘stolen’?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109572>
Posted on February 15, 2020 9:44 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109572> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

You can listen to the fourth episode of the Election Meltdown podcast (in conjunction with Dahlia Lithwick and Slate Amicus) at this link<https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus/2020/02/election-meltdown-harsh-words>. (Episode 1 on voter suppression/voter fraud is here<https://megaphone.link/SLT6839728202>, Episode 2 on election administrator incompetence is here<https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus/2020/02/administrative-incompetence-undermines-elections>, and Episode 3 on campaign dirty tricks is here.<https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus/2020/02/dirty-tricks-to-disenfranchise-voters>) In this episode, Dahlia Lithwick and I speak with Professor Carol Anderson about the rhetoric surrounding elections, from Donald Trump’s call to his supporters to “watch” to make sure the election is not “stolen,” to Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams unwilling to say that her opponent Brian Kemp was the “legitimate” governor of Georgia after Kemp engaged in suppressive activities.

Tomorrow Slate Plus listeners will get to hear my interview with the ACLU’s Dale Ho about his voting rights trial against Kris Kobach in Kansas.

The finale of the Election Meltdown series will be a live show in DC on Feb. 19, with Danielle Citron, Andrew Gillum, Dale Ho, Dahlia Lithwick and me. (Tickets here<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/amicus-live-with-dahlia-lithwick-tickets-88707894701?aff=HEADLINER>.) The audio of the show will be released in next week’s podcast episode.

Episode Notes

In the fourth part of this special five-part series of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by election law professor Rick Hasen and Professor Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy.<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1635571391/?tag=slatmaga-20>Together, they try to sort through the rhetoric and the reality of “stolen” elections.

Rick Hasen’s new book Election Meltdown<http://www.amazon.com/dp/0300248199/?tag=slatmaga-20> forms the basis for this special series of Amicus.

Join Slate for the Election Meltdown live show<https://slate.com/live/amicus-live-w-dahlia-lithwick-andrew-gillum-and-more.html> on Feb. 19 in Washington.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, Election Meltdown<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=127>

“Bloomberg’s Billions: How the Candidate Built an Empire of Influence”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109570>
Posted on February 15, 2020 9:36 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109570> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Deep NYT dive.<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/02/15/us/politics/michael-bloomberg-spending.html>
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Posted in Plutocrats United<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=104>

“Rise of Sanders, Trump Shows Decline in Party Power; The national Republican and Democratic parties have far less sway now in anointing candidates and enforcing discipline”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109568>
Posted on February 15, 2020 9:27 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109568> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WSJ reports<https://www.wsj.com/articles/rise-of-sanders-trump-shows-decline-in-party-power-11581742860>.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

New Morning Consult Poll: Voters Trust Paper Ballots More Than Other Means of Voting<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109566>
Posted on February 15, 2020 9:24 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109566> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Morning Consult:<https://morningconsult.com/2020/02/12/after-iowa-caucuses-voters-have-low-confidence-in-tech-enabled-voting-methods/>

After issues with a vote tabulation mobile app delayed the results of the Iowa caucuses, voters are more likely to trust in analog voting methods than ballot systems that rely heavily on technology, according to a new Morning Consult/Politico survey.

Among a sample of 1,996 registered voters, 71 percent said they were at least somewhat confident in the more traditional form of voting — electronic voting machines that provide paper receipts — to count their ballots accurately, compared to 22 percent who said the same about those cast through mobile apps. Thirty-seven percent said they had no confidence at all in mobile app voting, the highest share of the methods surveyed.

The survey<https://morningconsult.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/200213_crosstabs_POLITICO_RVs_v1_AUTO.pdf>, which was conducted Feb. 7-9, has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
[cid:image002.png at 01D5E3E6.27146950]
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Iowa disaster shows why techie culture and running elections don’t always mix — is Nevada next?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109564>
Posted on February 15, 2020 9:20 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109564> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Salon:<https://www.salon.com/2020/02/12/iowa-disaster-shows-why-techie-culture-and-running-elections-dont-always-mix--is-nevada-next_partner/>

In other words, as party-run contests in Iowa continue and are poised to take the stage in Nevada, the riskiest, most controversial and possibly least assuring aspects of these 2020 elections are coming from decisions made by state party officials. These officials tend to be younger and more confident than skeptical of digital technology, and have sided with their vendors more than outside experts.

That state party role has not been recognized in the most detailed<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/09/us/politics/iowa-democratic-caucuses.html/> press reports offering explanations or more conspiratorial<https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/06/the-myth-of-incompetence-dnc-scandals-are-a-feature-not-a-bug/> reports casting blame about Iowa’s meltdown. Yet top party officials in both states have resisted<https://www.salon.com/2019/07/20/nevada-dems-announce-telephone-voting-in-2020-caucuses-despite-reservations-at-the-dnc_partner/> warnings from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) about the risks of debuting new digital voting systems. Those warnings have come from the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC), which oversees state delegate selection plans, the DNC’s technology staff, and an expert advisory board created by the DNC staff.

The RBC’s 2020 rules envisioned<https://www.salon.com/2019/01/30/why-the-2020-iowa-democratic-caucuses-could-become-a-definitive-showcase-for-online-voting_partner/> caucus states offering a remote participation option to voters who could not be physically present at the caucuses. But as the months progressed and the details of that system raised reliability and security concerns, the RBC reversed course. In late August, it rejected plans by Iowa and Nevada to offer voters a telephone keypad-based voting option. At the time, the RBC also warned<https://www.truthdig.com/articles/dnc-reverses-course-on-virtual-voting-in-two-states/>these two states about using online voting systems.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Free and Fair Podcast Episode on “Primaries 101”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109562>
Posted on February 14, 2020 1:26 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109562> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Listen to the latest<https://soundcloud.com/freeandfair/primaries-101> from Franita Tolson and Ned Foley.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“New Hampshire primary showed how student turnout can overcome voter suppression”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109560>
Posted on February 14, 2020 10:13 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109560> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Steven Rosenfeld<https://www.salon.com/2020/02/14/new-hampshire-primary-showed-how-student-turnout-can-overcome-voter-suppression_partner/> for Salon.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“The Simple Lessons from a Complicated Iowa Caucus”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109557>
Posted on February 14, 2020 8:47 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109557> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Gowri Ramachandran<https://www.justsecurity.org/author/ramachandrangowri/> and Susannah Goodman<https://www.justsecurity.org/author/goodmansusannah/> at Just Security.<https://www.justsecurity.org/68665/the-simple-lessons-from-a-complicated-iowa-caucus/>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Foreign Information Is Not a Campaign Finance Violation”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109555>
Posted on February 14, 2020 8:44 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109555> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Jim Bopp<https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2020/02/13/foreign-information-is-not-a-campaign-finance-violation/> in the NLJ:

The Democrat members of Congress and their media allies are totally off base. No President could effectively exercise his constitutional authority if his every interaction with foreign officials is subject to second-guessing under campaign finance laws. This is wrong as a matter of policy and barred by the Constitution.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

--
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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