[EL] ELB News and Commentary 6/23/20

Tue Jun 23 07:07:23 PDT 2020

“Election chaos renews focus on gutted Voting Rights Act”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112488>
Posted on June 23, 2020 6:57 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112488> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP reports.<https://www.startribune.com/election-chaos-renews-focus-on-gutted-voting-rights-act/571436032/>
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Posted in Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>

“The Cybersecurity 202: Democratic election officials punch back on Trump mail voting claims”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112486>
Posted on June 23, 2020 6:47 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112486> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo reports<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-cybersecurity-202/2020/06/23/the-cybersecurity-202-democratic-election-officials-punch-back-on-trump-mail-voting-claims/5ef119bf602ff12947e92132/>.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

California: “Supreme Court appears ready to quickly order redistricting delay”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112484>
Posted on June 23, 2020 6:46 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112484> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

At the Lectern reports<http://www.atthelectern.com/supreme-court-appears-ready-to-quickly-order-redistricting-delay/>.
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

“The Facts About Mail-In Voting and Voter Fraud”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112482>
Posted on June 22, 2020 5:36 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112482> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/article/mail-in-vote-fraud-ballot.html>

President Trump has been baselessly warning that mail voting will lead to a “rigged election.” Here’s how states running mail elections track misconduct.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“While national voices claim ‘voter suppression,’ Kentucky on pace for record voter turnout “<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112480>
Posted on June 22, 2020 4:09 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112480> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Courier-Journal<https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2020/06/22/kentucky-officials-refute-primary-voter-suppression-claims/3235183001/>:

While national Democrats, athletes and celebrities are saying Kentucky’s rescheduled primary is an attempt at voter suppression, the Bluegrass State is on its way to a possible record turnout in Tuesday’s primary election.

Kentucky received high marks months ago when Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams agreed to allow registered voters to mail in absentee ballots to avoid in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the plan, Kentuckians have also been allowed to vote in-person since June 15, a week ahead of the new primary date.

“If the governor and I are both suppressors, we’re doing a terrible job because we’ve got the highest turnout we’ve ever seen — and that’s the bottom line,” Adams told The Courier Journal on Monday.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Barring a landslide, what’s probably not coming on Nov. 3? A result in the race for the White House.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112477>
Posted on June 22, 2020 4:07 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112477> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo reports.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/barring-a-landslide-whats-probably-not-coming-on-nov-3-a-result-in-the-race-for-the-white-house/2020/06/22/88ada5fa-b181-11ea-8758-bfd1d045525a_story.html>
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Posted in Election Meltdown<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=127>

“With Unsubstantiated Claim, Trump Sows Doubt On US Election”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112474>
Posted on June 22, 2020 4:03 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112474> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP<https://hosted.ap.org/thetimes-tribune/article/ff240697b98d79eb1097a6f4298b3fb5/unsubstantiated-claim-trump-sows-doubt-us-election>:

“It’s a way of trying to turn the foreign interference claims that have been made on their head,” said Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine. “Typically we’ve heard that the Russian government and others were working to help elect Trump, and here is Trump using fears of foreign interference as a way of bolstering his own side.”

“This potentially lays the groundwork,” he added, “for him contesting election results.”

Though election records obtained by The Associated Press show that a half-dozen senior advisers to the president have voted by mail, others in the administration have recently promoted the notion that states could be inundated with fraudulent ballots from overseas.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, voted by mail in April from a mansion they haven’t lived in for 4 years”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112472>
Posted on June 22, 2020 3:59 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112472> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Business Insider:<https://www.businessinsider.com/vice-president-pence-voted-by-mail-in-indiana-gop-primary-2020-6>

Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence voted by mail for this month’s Indiana Republican primary using a home address that they haven’t lived at for nearly four years, Insider has learned.

The Pences cast their mail-in ballot on April 13, listing the Indiana governor’s mansion as their residence, according to a copy of the state’s voter files.

The second couple moved out of their taxpayer-funded house in Indianapolis at the end of 2016 as they prepared to move to Washington, DC, but they remain registered to vote at their most recent address, along with the state’s current Republican governor, Eric Holcomb.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>

“‘A Woman Stumps Her State’: Nellie G. Robinson and Women’s Right to Hold Public Office in Ohio”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112470>
Posted on June 22, 2020 3:55 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112470> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Elizabeth Katz has posted this draft<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3615330> on SSRN (forthcoming, Akron Law Review). Here is the abstract:

In recognition of the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, this essay provides an introduction to a largely overlooked yet essential component of the women’s movement: the pursuit of women’s legal right to hold public office. From the mid-nineteenth century through ratification of the federal suffrage amendment in 1920, women demanded access to appointed and elected positions, ranging from notary public to mayor. Because the legal right to hold office had literal and symbolic connections to the right to vote, suffragists and antisuffragists were deeply invested in the outcome. Courts and legislatures varied in their responses, with those in the Midwest and West generally more willing than those in the Northeast and South to construe or create law permitting women to hold office. This account centers on the experiences of Nellie G. Robinson, a pioneering woman lawyer whose efforts to secure public office in Ohio received nationwide attention in the years surrounding the turn of the twentieth century. To contextualize Robinson’s successes and failures, the essay expands to consider the parallel efforts of other women lawyers from the period, as well as the broader history of women’s officeholding in Ohio—a state with laws and politics reflecting the major trends and tensions in the national women’s officeholding movement.

This essay was written for a symposium issue of the Akron Law Review, organized with the Center for Constitutional Law. The topic for the conference and symposium was “The 19th Amendment at 100: From the Vote to Gender Equality.”
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Posted in 19th Amendment<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=128>

“Ballot Access Requirement for Maryland Green, Libertarian Parties Cut in Half”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112468>
Posted on June 22, 2020 3:48 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112468> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Maryland Matters reports.<https://www.marylandmatters.org/blog/ballot-access-requirement-for-green-libertarian-parties-cut-in-half/>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

New York: “Virus forces burst of mail-in voting, shortage of poll workers”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112466>
Posted on June 22, 2020 3:47 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112466> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Newsday reports.<https://www.newsday.com/news/health/coronavirus/primary-election-voting-absentee-1.45902509?mc_cid=c8d9fa0508&mc_eid=5cf3f23864>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Torres-Spelliscy on the Upcoming SCOTUS Decision in Baca, the Electoral College Case<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112464>
Posted on June 22, 2020 3:46 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112464> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Here<https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/supreme-court-case-could-have-major-consequences-presidential-races> at the Brennan Center.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“A 1960s Lawsuit Against the KKK Can Help Protect Elections in 2020”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112462>
Posted on June 22, 2020 11:10 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112462> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Cameron Kistler and Nanya Springer in Slate<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/06/kkk-lawsuit-protect-elections-coronavirus.html>:

We’re arguing in court that a failure to take reasonable precautions to protect voters from COVID violates Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which makes voter intimidation illegal regardless of whether anyone intended<https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=10451612594280947808&q=j.+christian+adams&hl=en&as_sdt=20006> for voters to be intimidated. The federal court in the Bogalusa case—along with other federal courts considering similar cases in Terrell County, Georgia<https://books.google.com/books?id=abnSKGQrdhMC&pg=RA1-PA1301&lpg=RA1-PA1301&dq=%22from+refusing+reasonable+police+protection+to+any+person+in+need+thereof%22&source=bl&ots=pINDcJ85cN&sig=ACfU3U3owEWf9WsxbS2zh88j7thvONmY9Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwnu-J2-HoAhWtm-AKHUNCCJ0Q6AEwAXoECAMQLg#v=onepage&q=%22from%20refusing%20reasonable%20police%20protection%20to%20any%20person%20in%20need%20thereof%22&f=false>, and Dallas County, Alabama<https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=11553052823114006819&q=249+F.+Supp.+720,&hl=en&as_sdt=20006>—recognized that federal judges can indeed compel local officials to protect voters from intimidating forces that deter voting. In this case, the court would be ordering election officials to provide communities with in-person and absentee voting options that are safe from a virus rather than from the Klan.

There are plenty of ways the courts could ensure voters are safe. As in the Bogalusa Voters League case, federal courts could order election officials to commit to a plan to ensure safe and easy voting in 2020, particularly in those jurisdictions that have historically disenfranchised the very same minority voters who likely face the highest health risks from electoral participation this year. And if that’s not enough, a court could go further and order elections officials to take specific measures such as, for example, setting up polling places to minimize transmission risks, ensuring that poll workers wear masks, and mandating absentee ballot drop boxes. Moreover, to the extent that state law (and not merely bureaucratic inertia) is responsible for unsafe voting conditions—such as is likely the case with many rules requiring in-person witnesses to absentee ballot signatures, as well as rules requiring an excuse before voting absentee—the court could determine that the need to comply with the Voting Rights Act supersedes state law. If done right, such an order would help to ensure that no voter is forced to choose between voting and personal safety in 2020.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“‘This is a war’: Republicans ramp up bid to control election maps for next decade”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112460>
Posted on June 22, 2020 10:25 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112460> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Guardian<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/22/republican-dark-money-groups-2020-election>:

A little-known Republican group is ramping up millions of dollars in funding from major US corporations such as CitiGroup and Chevron to protect the conservative stronghold on the country.

The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) – which held the key to the GOP’s political takeover a decade ago – launched the Right Lines 2020 campaign<https://rightlines.gop/> last September, taglined: “Socialism starts in the states. Let’s stop it there, too.” It’s hoping to meet a $125m investment goal in an effort to retain 42 state legislature seats that the group says are key to holding power in the House of Representatives in battleground states including Wisconsin, Texas, Florida and New York.
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

--
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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