[EL] ELB News and Commentary 3/13/20

Fri Mar 13 08:18:33 PDT 2020

“How 4 Big States Are Preparing to Vote as the Coronavirus Spreads; Elections officials in Ohio, Florida, Illinois and Arizona, the next states on the primary calendar, are taking extra precautions but have expressed confidence that voting can be held safely.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109986>
Posted on March 13, 2020 8:13 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109986> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT reports.<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/us/politics/primary-voting-coronavirus.html>
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Some Democrats urge party to weigh alternatives for national convention amid coronavirus outbreak”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109984>
Posted on March 13, 2020 8:11 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109984> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo reports.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/some-democrats-urge-party-to-weigh-alternatives-for-national-convention-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/2020/03/12/66c6b5fa-6486-11ea-845d-e35b0234b136_story.html>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Biden ad manipulates video to slam Trump”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109982>
Posted on March 13, 2020 8:10 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109982> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/13/biden-ad-manipulates-video-slam-trump/>:

An onslaught of political advertising is par for the course in any election year. The 2020 presidential contest proves to be no exception.

So, on first glance, nothing was unusual when former vice president Joe Biden, who appears to be on track for the Democratic nomination, took a swing at President Trump. On March 3, he tweeted a video with the caption<https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1234856304918663168>, “We can’t sit by and lose this country to Donald Trump. Today, we take it back — together.” However, while the caption is standard political rhetoric, the attached video included two clips of the president that meet the Fact Checker’s standards for manipulated video<https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/politics/fact-checker/manipulated-video-guide/?tid=lk_inline_manual_5&itid=lk_inline_manual_5>. Our guide includes three broad categories: Some video is taken out of context; other content is deceptively edited; or, in the worst instances, it is deliberately altered.

Earlier this week, we examined three videos<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/10/unraveling-three-manipulated-videos-about-joe-biden/?tid=lk_inline_manual_8&itid=lk_inline_manual_8> — including one by the Trump campaign — that met our standards for manipulated video. But the Biden campaign isn’t shy about playing the same game of video trickery.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“6 of the most important democracy books of the past 6 months”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109980>
Posted on March 13, 2020 8:06 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109980> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Roundup<https://thefulcrum.us/big-picture/6-of-the-most-important-democracy-books-of-the-past-6-months?rebelltitem=5#rebelltitem5> from the Fulcrum.
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Posted in Election Meltdown<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=127>

“What Happens When Coronavirus Hits Congress? A pandemic like this could paralyze the government just when we need it most.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109978>
Posted on March 13, 2020 8:03 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109978> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Garrett Graff for Politico.<https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/13/coronavirus-congress-sick-planning-128077>
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Posted in legislation and legislatures<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=27>

Sitting Conservative Justices on Wisconsin Supreme Court Publicly Criticize Liberal Candidate for Court Who Is Running Against Conservative Colleague for Saying Justice “Sides with Right Wing Special Interests”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109976>
Posted on March 13, 2020 7:59 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109976> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this<https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/conservative-wisconsin-supreme-court-justices-lash-out-against-candidate-jill/article_caa520aa-a9e6-50d0-8593-c01729a8f978.html>.
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Posted in judicial elections<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=19>

New York: “Judge preserves fusion voting, negates public dollars for campaigns”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109974>
Posted on March 13, 2020 7:55 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109974> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Buffalo News:<https://buffalonews.com/2020/03/12/judge-preserves-fusion-voting-negates-public-dollars-for-campaigns/>

A State Supreme Court justice has voided new rules adopted by a special commission paving the way for public financing of elections in New York State while making it harder for minor parties to qualify for the ballot.

Justice Ralph A. Boniello III, in a ruling released Thursday, said the special commission appointed by the governor and Legislature to review state election law had, in effect, usurped the powers assigned to the Legislature by the State Constitution.

“The court finds that the Legislature, clearly and unequivocally, empowered the commission to legislate new law and repeal existing statutes,” the judge said. “The line between administrative rule making (which can be delegated) and legislative action (which cannot be delegated) has clearly been transgressed.”
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Posted in ballot access<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=46>, campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

“Ohio elections boards frantically seeking poll workers due to coronavirus outbreak”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109972>
Posted on March 12, 2020 2:54 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109972> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Columbus Dispatch<https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200312/ohio-elections-boards-frantically-seeking-poll-workers-due-to-coronavirus-outbreak>:

Ohio elections officials are rushing to recruit additional poll workers ahead of Tuesday primary as concerns about the spread of COVID-19 have led hundreds to drop out before Election Day.

Desperate county elections boards are pleading with friends and family members for help. Some are even talking about instantly recruiting voters walking in to cast ballots Tuesday to help work the polls the remainder of the day.

“We’re getting into the threshold of scary,” said Brian Sleeth, deputy elections director in Warren County, just north of Cincinnati. “We’re not panicking yet. We’re actively recruiting.”

So far, 100 poll workers have canceled, including 50 in the past 24 hours. The county has 800 poll workers still signed up but is now 100 short.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Coronavirus could normalize voting by mail. That will create other problems.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109969>
Posted on March 12, 2020 8:43 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109969> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

David Daley<https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/03/12/coronavirus-vote-by-mail-problems/>:

One common-sense measure would be to dramatically expand vote-by-mail options, allowing citizens to cast their ballots from a safe distance. (While every state allows voting by mail under some conditions, only five states conduct all of their statewide elections in this manner.) On Wednesday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), whose state pioneered vote by mail in the 1990s, introduced legislation<https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/03/10/mail-voting-coronavirus-bill/?tid=lk_inline_manual_4&itid=lk_inline_manual_4> that would provide $500 million for states to begin making contingency plans for November’s election. If a state hard hit by coronavirus does need to transfer to a large-scale vote-by-mail operation, it would take months to buy optical scanners, put them in place and retrain poll workers. The transition requires a lot of extra preparation: The long delays counting the primary vote in California and Michigan, which have recently expanded early and absentee voting, have already shown that the system is often unprepared for tallying large numbers of pre-Election Day ballots.

Wyden’s plan is necessary and nonpartisan. But transitioning from voting in person to voting by mail would be a tectonic shift, presenting challenges that go beyond just technology or personnel, or even counting the vote. Any transition must also protect the foundational notion of one person, one vote, especially among historically disenfranchised communities. Too often, voting reforms have disregarded these citizens and their concerns.

Printed ballots can, in themselves, pose a challenge for equal access to the vote. While the Voting Rights Act requires<https://www.justice.gov/crt/about-language-minority-voting-rights> that printed ballots be translated into multiple languages so that everyone can read election materials, the law is hardly perfect<https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/english-only-ballots-disenfranchise-millions-voters-now-theres-new-tool-translation>: Local governments need only provide translated ballots for groups that make up at least 5 percent of the population, or number at least 10,000 people<https://www.justice.gov/crt/about-language-minority-voting-rights>. In many southern states<https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/english-only-ballots-disenfranchise-millions-voters-now-theres-new-tool-translation>, especially, that leaves many newly naturalized citizens, or those still learning English, vulnerable to disenfranchisement. Across Texas<https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Judge-asks-for-election-law-changes-to-help-9146714.php>, Louisiana<https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/language-rights> and Georgia<https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-georgia-voting-rights-act-20160808-snap-story.html>, civil rights groups have pursued costly and time-consuming litigation trying to provide access to translators for individual voters in communities where the minority population might be significant, but under the required threshold.

Sometimes, localities that are required to provide translation services, to protect minority voting rights, fail to do so. The Department of Justice’s website lists dozens<https://www.justice.gov/crt/cases-raising-claims-under-language-minority-provisions-voting-rights-act> of examples of violations from the past 20 years; enforcement appears to have stopped after 2015. Meanwhile, rural communities in states including North Dakota<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/opinion/sunday/north-dakota-addresses-voting-id.html>, Colorado<https://coloradosun.com/2019/06/18/colorado-mountain-town-post-office-problems/> and Iowa <https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-usps/special-report-towns-go-dark-with-post-office-closings-idUSTRE81D0M620120214> have slow or unreliable postal delivery, which could create an unfair barrier to the ballot box.
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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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