[EL] ELB News and Commentary 7/28/20

[Rick Hasen]

Latest Republican COVID Relief Bill Contains NO New Money for Additional COVID-Related Election Costs for November<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113506>
Posted on July 27, 2020 9:15 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113506> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Common Cause<https://www.commoncause.org/press-release/senate-republicans-bailout-focuses-on-corporate-immunity-while-undermining-census-count-and-democracy-issues/>:

The Senate proposal also fails to provide any additional funding for cash-strapped state and local election officials who exhausted their budgets holding primary elections during a public health crisis. The right to vote and vote safely should be a priority for Congress, not a means to suppress the vote. The bill provides nothing for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) which will be relied upon heavily in the coming election to deliver ballot applications and ballots on-time in order to allow every American to make their voices heard at the polls. Again, this move follows the lead of a White House determined to undermine the effectiveness of the Postal Service on the eve of an election.

Adequate funding from Congress is one of the key recommendations of our Fair Elections During a Crisis<https://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/2020ElectionReport.pdf> report. Whether Congress funds it or not, the additional costs for mail-in and in-person voting are going to be there and we don’t want election officials to do a sloppy job because of inadequate resources.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Georgia Senator Is Criticized for Ad Enlarging Jewish Opponent’s Nose; Senator David Perdue, a Republican, drew a quick rebuke from his Democratic opponent, Jon Ossoff, who said the Facebook ad employed the ‘least original anti-Semitic trope in history.’”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113504>
Posted on July 27, 2020 9:02 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113504> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT reports<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/27/us/politics/jon-ossoff-david-perdue-ad.html>.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D113504&title=%E2%80%9CGeorgia%20Senator%20Is%20Criticized%20for%20Ad%20Enlarging%20Jewish%20Opponent%E2%80%99s%20Nose%3B%20Senator%20David%20Perdue%2C%20a%20Republican%2C%20drew%20a%20quick%20rebuke%20from%20his%20Democratic%20opponent%2C%20Jon%20Ossoff%2C%20who%20said%20the%20Facebook%20ad%20employed%20the%20%E2%80%98least%20original%20anti-Semitic%20trope%20in%20history.%E2%80%99%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“At least 77% of American voters can cast ballots by mail in the fall”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113502>
Posted on July 27, 2020 9:00 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113502> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo reports.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/vote-by-mail-states/>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


New Franita and Foley Podcast: “What Would John Lewis Think?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113500>
Posted on July 27, 2020 8:54 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113500> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Listen here<https://soundcloud.com/freeandfair/what-would-john-lewis-think>:

How can we continue the fight of civil rights leader John Lewis, and the many who came before him, in the context of free and fair elections? Election scholars Ned Foley (OSU Moritz College of Law) and Franita Tolson (USC Gould School of Law) discuss ongoing congressional debate about the future of voting rights, backsliding in current protections and what their dream legislation honoring Lewis would entai
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Gov. Greg Abbott extends early voting for November election by six days, starting Oct. 13”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113498>
Posted on July 27, 2020 1:52 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113498> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Texas Tribune<https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/27/texas-greg-abbott-early-voting-november/>:

Gov. Greg Abbott<https://www.texastribune.org/directory/greg-abbott/> on Monday extended the early voting period for the November election by six days, citing continued challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Early voting for the Nov. 3 election will now begin Oct. 13 instead of Oct. 19. The end date remains Oct. 30….

Abbott and other Texas GOP leaders continue to resist a push by Democrats to expand mail-in voting. Democrats failed to convince<https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/02/us-supreme-court-Texas-lawsuit-mail-in-voting/> the courts to expand mail-in voting for the runoffs but are pressing forward with their efforts for the general election.

But the Monday announcement from the governor gave eligible mail-in voters more time to turn in their completed ballots in person if they would like to do so. Current law allows those voters to submit their ballots to the early voting clerk’s office in person instead of mailing them in — but only while polls are open on Election Day. Abbott’s latest move expands that option to the entire early voting period.
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Posted in absentee ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>, election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“Wealthy donors pour millions into fight over mail-in voting”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113496>
Posted on July 27, 2020 1:47 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113496> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP<https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/27/election-2020-vote-by-mail-spending/112458032/>:

Deep-pocketed and often anonymous donors are pouring over $100 million into an intensifying dispute about whether it should be easier to vote by mail, a fight that could determine President Donald Trump’s fate in the November election.

In the battleground of Wisconsin, cash-strapped cities have received $6.3 million from an organization with ties to left-wing philanthropy to help expand vote by mail. Meanwhile, a well-funded conservative group best known for its focus on judicial appointments is spending heavily to fight cases related to mail-in balloting procedures in court.

And that’s just a small slice of the overall spending, which is likely to swell far higher as the election nears.
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Posted in absentee ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>, The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


New Poll Finds American Public About Evenly Divided on Whether Voter Fraud or Denying Eligible Voters the Ballots is a Bigger Problem; Deep Partisan Split<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113493>
Posted on July 27, 2020 12:57 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113493> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

This YouGov poll confirms<https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2020/07/27/voter-fraud-worry-poll> what we’ve seen elsewhere. Huge problem.
[cid:image002.png at 01D6645B.D1111ED0]
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


Important New Project: The Election Integrity Partnership<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113491>
Posted on July 27, 2020 12:19 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=113491> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Announcement<https://www.eipartnership.net/news/announcing-the-eip>:

Misinformation and disinformation can be used to disenfranchise voters and erode public confidence in the legitimacy of our elections. As we observed in the United States in 2016, and in numerous other countries since, the spread of viral misleading content can diminish trust in the results of electoral contests, and in the integrity of democratic processes and leadership transitions overall. An increasing percentage of voters this November will look for real-time election information on social media, and election misinformation and disinformation on social media is a significant threat to ensuring the integrity of the upcoming presidential election. In the United States, over 10,000 individual jurisdictions are responsible for election administration: presently, there is no centralized support to aid this front line in identifying and responding to emerging election-related disinformation.

The Election Integrity Partnership is a coalition of research entities focused on supporting real-time information exchange between the research community, election officials, government agencies, civil society organizations, and social media platforms. Our objective is to detect and mitigate the impact of attempts to prevent or deter people from voting or to delegitimize election results. This is not a fact-checking partnership to debunk misinformation more generally: our objective explicitly excludes addressing comments that may be made about candidates’ character or actions and is focused narrowly on content intended to suppress voting, reduce participation, confuse voters as to election processes, or delegitimize election results without evidence.

The foundational Partnership consists of four of the nation’s leading institutions focused on analysis of mis- and disinformation in the social media landscape: the Stanford Internet Observatory<https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/io> and Program on Democracy and the Internet<https://pacscenter.stanford.edu/research/program-on-democracy-and-the-internet/>, Graphika<https://graphika.com/>, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab<https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/programs/digital-forensic-research-lab/>, and the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public<https://www.cip.uw.edu/>. We will be working with stakeholders in civil society as well as election officials to find instances of election-related misinformation, analyze reports from public sector and NGO partners, and route our findings to the appropriate parties to mitigate the impact. Tips on potential disinformation will come from multiple sources, including from local election officials via existing coordination channels. We will do so transparently and in a nonpartisan manner, sharing up-to-the-minute findings and rapid analysis through a web portal and official social media channels.

Our hope is that this Partnership will provide actionable support for election officials and other partners who are on the front lines of providing accurate information to the electorate, as well as increased transparency for the general public into real threats of election-related misinformation and disinformation this election.

We would like to thank the Knight Foundation and Craig Newmark Philanthropies for their support of this effort.

Public officials and voter-protection organizations can reach the Partnership at info at eipartnership.net<mailto:info at eipartnership.net>
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Posted in social media and social protests<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=58>


--
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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