[EL] ELB News and Commentary 1/15/20

Wed Jan 15 10:03:21 PST 2020

Thanks to Rick for inviting me to guest-blog this week!  Dan“Democrats
sound election security alarm after Russia’s Burisma hack”
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108977>
Posted on January 15, 2020 8:36 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108977>
by Dan Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

The Hill
<https://thehill.com/regulation/cybersecurity/478292-democrats-sound-election-security-alarm-after-russias-burisma-hack>
:

Congressional Democrats are raising fresh concerns about 2020 election
security following a report this week that Russian military officers hacked
Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian gas company at the center of President Trump
<https://thehill.com/people/donald-trump>’s impeachment.

Several Democratic lawmakers are viewing the incident, reported by The New
York Times on Monday night, as the first major sign that Moscow is gearing
up for a repeat of its 2016 election interference. They cited what they
call similarities between the Burisma attack and the Democratic National
Committee hack four years ago.

The referenced NYT story on Burisma is here
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/13/us/politics/russian-hackers-burisma-ukraine.html>
.
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Posted in chicanery <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>
“Despite Election Security Fears, Iowa Caucuses Will Use New Smartphone App”
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108975>
Posted on January 15, 2020 8:28 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108975>
by Dan Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

NPR
<https://www.npr.org/2020/01/14/795906732/despite-election-security-fears-iowa-caucuses-will-use-new-smartphone-app>
:

Iowa’s Democratic Party plans to use a new Internet-connected smartphone
app to help calculate and transmit results during the state’s caucuses next
month, Iowa Public Radio and NPR have confirmed.

Party leaders say they decided to opt for that strategy fully aware of
three years’ worth of warnings about Russia’s attack on the 2016
presidential election, in which cyberattacks played a central role.

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Posted in voting technology <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>
“Millions of Americans have been purged from voter rolls—and may not even
realize it” <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108973>
Posted on January 15, 2020 8:17 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108973>
by Dan Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

Fortune
<https://fortune.com/2020/01/14/am-i-registered-to-vote-voter-registration-deadlines-2020-how-to-check/>
:

Millions of Americans have been purged from the voter rolls in recent
years, as state governments seek to remove the names of individuals who
have died, relocated, or have otherwise become ineligible to vote.

But such purges have been widely criticized due to instances in which
states have relied on bad information, unregistering eligible voters who
are often unaware until they attempt to cast their ballots on Election Day.

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Posted in voter registration <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=37>
“Missouri GOP puts political fairness at bottom of redistricting priorities”
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108971>
Posted on January 15, 2020 8:14 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108971>
by Dan Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

AP
<https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/missouri-gop-puts-political-fairness-bottom-redistricting-priorities-n1115396>
:

Republican senators rolled out a plan Tuesday to ask Missouri voters to
undo key parts of a nationally unique redistricting model that directs a
demographer to draw new legislative districts with “partisan fairness” and
“competitiveness” as top criteria.

The Republican proposal would abolish the demographer position and relegate
political fairness and competitiveness to the bottom of the priority list,
behind such criteria as compact and contiguous districts that keep
communities intact.

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Posted in redistricting <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>
New Issue of Election Law Journal <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108969>
Posted on January 15, 2020 6:28 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108969>
by Dan Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

Now available
<https://www.liebertpub.com/toc/elj/18/4#utm_source=ETOC&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=elj>.
The contents of 18:4:

   - Segregated Ballots for Voters with Disabilities? An Analysis of
   Policies and Use of the ExpressVote Ballot Marking Device, by Jonathan Lazar
   - Diversifying the Donor Pool: How Did Seattle’s Democracy Voucher
   Program Reshape Participation in Municipal Campaign Finance?, by Brian J.
   McCabe and Jennifer A. Heerwig
   - Voter Identification and Nonvoting in Wisconsin—Evidence from the 2016
   Election, by Michael G. DeCrescenzo and Kenneth R. Mayer
   - “No Man Can Be the Judge of His Own Cause”: Applying the Principles of
   Due Process to Our Elections, by Molly C. Greathead
   - Declination as a Metric to Detect Partisan Gerrymandering, by Marion
   Campisi, Andrea Padilla, Thomas Ratliff, and Ellen Veomett
   - Locating the Representational Baseline: Republicans in Massachusetts,
   by Moon Duchin, Taissa Gladkova, Eugene Henninger-Voss, Ben Klingensmith,
   Heather Newman, and Hannah Wheelen

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Posted in election law biz <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=51>
“Foreign Threats More Numerous, Sophisticated as 2020 Election Looms,
Official Says” <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108967>
Posted on January 15, 2020 6:21 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108967>
by Dan Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

WSJ reports
<https://www.wsj.com/articles/foreign-threats-more-numerous-sophisticated-as-2020-election-looms-official-says-11579042613?emailToken=4cc9b5ae10954192eec749562d001ed7kE+NXIVrdwp4JbarxxLzoR3NdNVTCYB7l+9/RdKXVPXPMRhU22fPiKW0kvh3B1RBYR0mI1Uc18s3jobCfK0iyWpvd8gSMyo0dfUq9trgl3imGbWuEw5ot43JZ8p0kXFIz8NedV495eJpDbfgoO9wwQ%3D%3D&reflink=article_copyURL_share>
:

Shelby Pierson, the principal adviser on election threats in the Office of
the Director of National Intelligence, said Tuesday that actors intent on
spreading malign influence have become more numerous and potent since
Russia’s breaches in the 2016 election. She included Iran, China and North
Korea, as well as Russia and hackers unaffiliated with governments, on the
threat list.

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Posted in Uncategorized <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
Missouri Supreme Court Upholds Ruling That Part of Voter ID Law Violates
State Constitution <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108965>
Posted on January 14, 2020 2:28 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108965>
by Dan Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

>From the conclusion of today’s opinion
<http://komu.s3.amazonaws.com/files/news_documents/opinion_sc97470.pdf>
in *Priorities
USA v. State of Missouri*:

Because the affidavit requirement of sections 115.427.2(1) and 115.427.3 is
misleading and contradictory, the circuit court’s judgment declaring the
affidavit requirement unconstitutional is affirmed. Further, the circuit
court did not err in enjoining the State from requiring individuals who
vote under the non-photo identification option provided in section
115.427.2(1) to execute the affidavit or in enjoining it from disseminating
materials indicating photo identification is required to vote. The circuit
court’s judgment is affirmed

Coverage here
<https://www.komu.com/news/state-supreme-court-upholds-ruling-on-missouri-voter-id-law>
.
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Posted in voter id <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>
Citizens United at 10 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108960>
Posted on January 14, 2020 1:19 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108960>
by Dan Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

Hard to believe, but one week from today will mark the 10th birthday
of *Citizens
United*. To help us commemorate/mourn the occasion, the Center for
Responsive Politics has this report
<https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/01/citizens-united-on-its-10th-anniversary/>,
“More money, less transparency: A decade under *Citizens United*.” And from
Issue One <https://www.coordinationwatch.org/> “Coordination Watch: How
candidates and outside groups work together to evade anti-corruption laws.”
More to come, I’m sure, in the next several days.

*Update*: Ciara Torres-Spelliscy has this post
<https://www.acslaw.org/expertforum/citizens-united-made-my-career/>,
“Citizens United Made My Career: I Wish It Had Never Happened,” at ACSBlog.

*Update 2*: Brennan Center offers this analysis
<https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/2018-small-donor-boom-was-drowned-out-big-donors-thanks-citizens-united>,
“The 2018 Small Donor Boom Was Drowned Out by Big Donors, Thanks to
Citizens United”
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Posted in campaign finance <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

Daniel P. Tokaji

Associate Dean for Faculty | Ebersold Professor of Constitutional Law

The Ohio State University | Moritz College of Law

55 W. 12th Ave. | Columbus, OH 43210

614.292.6566 | tokaji.1 at osu.edu

>
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