[EL] ELB News and Commentary 6/9/20

[Rick Hasen]

“Say goodbye to ‘Election Night’ and hello to ‘Election Week'”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111949>
Posted on June 9, 2020 7:50 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111949> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NBC News<https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/say-goodbye-election-night-hello-election-week-n1228206>:

Now less than five months out from the general election, Americans need to brace themselves for the real possibility that the presidential contest won’t be decided on Election Night.

And that’s even if one of the candidates ultimately pulls off a decisive victory.

With more states voting by mail due to the pandemic, and with some states having a history of counting these ballots slowly, we might not know who won a state for a week — if not longer.

Case in point is the 2018 Senate race in Arizona between Republican Martha McSally and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema….
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Minuscule number of potentially fraudulent ballots in states with universal mail voting undercuts Trump claims about election risks”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111947>
Posted on June 9, 2020 7:47 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111947> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo reports.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/minuscule-number-of-potentially-fraudulent-ballots-in-states-with-universal-mail-voting-undercuts-trump-claims-about-election-risks/2020/06/08/1e78aa26-a5c5-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Some states have embraced online voting. It’s a huge risk. People’s phones, tablets and computers are vulnerable to hackers. Securing the internet could take a decade or more. But some states are plowing ahead anyway.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111945>
Posted on June 9, 2020 7:45 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111945> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Eric Geller<https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/08/online-voting-304013> for Politico.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D111945&title=%E2%80%9CSome%20states%20have%20embraced%20online%20voting.%20It%E2%80%99s%20a%20huge%20risk.%20People%E2%80%99s%20phones%2C%20tablets%20and%20computers%20are%20vulnerable%20to%20hackers.%20Securing%20the%20internet%20could%20take%20a%20decade%20or%20more.%20But%20some%20states%20are%20plowing%20ahead%20anyway.%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“In Georgia, primary day starts with long lines, broken machines — a potential preview of November”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111942>
Posted on June 9, 2020 7:21 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111942> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/voting-june-9-primaries/2020/06/09/df6b8aa2-a9e7-11ea-a9d9-a81c1a491c52_story.html?wpmk=MK0000200>:

Lines snaked out the doors, some polling locations didn’t open on time, and others had no working voting machines in at least four counties in the first hour of voting in Georgia’s primary elections Tuesday, a potential preview of how new voting procedures brought on by the coronavirus<https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/28/what-you-need-know-about-coronavirus/?itid=lk_inline_manual_1> pandemic could affect the presidential election in November.

“This seems to be happening throughout Atlanta and perhaps throughout the county. People have been in line since before 7:00 am this morning,” Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms tweeted<https://twitter.com/KeishaBottoms/status/1270321447576141824> barely 30 minutes after polls opened Tuesday.

She added: “If you are in line, PLEASE do not allow your vote to be suppressed. PLEASE stay in line. They should offer you a provisional ballot if the machines are not working.”

Voters reported arriving before polls opened and standing in line for more than an hour, with election officials processing ballots painfully slowly because machines were not working.

Check out this thread<https://twitter.com/bluestein/status/1270312105128988684> from Greg Bluestein:
[cid:image002.jpg at 01D63E33.E31E8250]<https://twitter.com/bluestein>
<https://twitter.com/bluestein>
Greg Bluestein<https://twitter.com/bluestein>
✔@bluestein<https://twitter.com/bluestein>

<https://twitter.com/bluestein/status/1270312105128988684>


The polls just opened in Georgia and long lines have already formed at some metro Atlanta polling places. The pandemic led officials to close some precincts and limit how many people can cast ballots at a time. #gapol<https://twitter.com/hashtag/gapol?src=hash> https://twitter.com/markniesse/status/1270310783709216770 …<https://t.co/agWB9jDLg5>
<https://twitter.com/markniesse/status/1270310783709216770>
Mark Niesse<https://twitter.com/markniesse/status/1270310783709216770>
✔@markniesse<https://twitter.com/markniesse/status/1270310783709216770>

Voters line up at Park Tavern at Piedmont Park in Midtown Atlanta. It’s going to be a long wait. Good luck voters!<https://twitter.com/markniesse/status/1270310783709216770>

<https://twitter.com/markniesse/status/1270310783709216770>
[Embedded video]<https://twitter.com/markniesse/status/1270310783709216770>

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4:09 AM - Jun 9, 2020<https://twitter.com/bluestein/status/1270312105128988684> · Dunwoody, GA<https://twitter.com/search?q=place%3A9c9fa69deb120a34>
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1,298 people are talking about this<https://twitter.com/bluestein/status/1270312105128988684>

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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Absentee voting in Georgia embraced equally by voters of both parties”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111940>
Posted on June 8, 2020 1:06 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111940> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AJC<https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/absentee-voting-georgia-embraced-equally-voters-both-parties/QwabnU3akBNQOdd1qNu4xN/>:

No matter their political party, Georgia voters quickly adapted to voting by mail in a primary election hindered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Over 1.2 million people have already voted — about three-quarters of them on absentee ballots — according to state elections data after early voting ended Friday. Voters were closely split between Democrats and Republicans heading into election day<https://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt--politics/candidates-make-weekend-push-for-votes-worry-about-fulton-flaws/qNFWpGrcBhWIDdzGOIjN5L/> on Tuesday.

Georgians embraced voting from home, avoiding human contact at polling places. A record 943,000 voters had returned their absentee ballots through Sunday, a 2,500% increase compared with absentee-by-mail voting in the 2016 presidential primary.

But the coronavirus brought problems to both in-person and absentee voting.

Voters waited in line<https://www.ajc.com/news/local/metro-atlanta-voters-face-long-lines-state-investigates-fulton-issues/5egszWkAyR9QXOroKvI44I/> for hours Friday because of social distancing requirements, and voters were also slowed by a long ballot of candidates for president, Congress, the courts and other offices. In Fulton County, some voters reported they never received<https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/absentee-ballot-requests-missing-fulton-ahead-georgia-primary/kkXUUbxL0wug5niqAvKTqM/> their absentee ballots after requesting them weeks beforehand.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“New Report Advises Election Officials on Protecting Voters and the Vote Despite Covid-19 and Cyberattacks”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111938>
Posted on June 8, 2020 12:15 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111938> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

New report<https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/new-report-advises-election-officials-protecting-voters-and-vote-despite> from the Brennan Center.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“GOP recruits army of poll watchers to fight voter fraud no one can prove exists”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111936>
Posted on June 8, 2020 12:14 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111936> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NBC News reports:<https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-recruits-army-poll-watchers-083043628.html>

Republicans are recruiting an estimated 50,000 volunteers to act as “poll watchers” in November, part of a multimillion-dollar effort to police who votes and how.

That effort, coordinated by the Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign<https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-finds-himself-playing-campaign-defense-core-elements-his-base-n1215576>, includes a $20 million fund for legal battles as well as the GOP’s first national poll-patrol operation in nearly 40 years.

While poll watching is an ordinary part of elections — both parties do it — voting rights advocates worry that such a moneyed, large-scale offensive by the Republicans will intimidate and target minority voters who tend to vote Democratic<https://www.people-press.org/2018/03/20/1-trends-in-party-affiliation-among-demographic-groups/> and chill turnout in a pivotal contest already upended by the coronavirus pandemic<https://www.nbcnews.com/health/coronavirus>.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


--
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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