[EL] Question about mail-in ballots and VRA Section 2 analsyes

[Dan Meek]

Oregon continues to have precincts and reports results by precinct.

Dan Meek

	503-293-9021 	dan at meek.net <mailto:dan at meek.net>	855-280-0488 fax



On 5/1/2020 12:45 PM, Douglas Johnson wrote:
> This has been a significant complication in some California cases, 
> when 40% or more of ballots cast in some 1990s and 2000-2010 elections 
> were counted in one giant "votes by mail" precinct. There is no way to 
> run analysis if there is only one data point.
>
> Depending on the voting machine, counties generally reports different 
> counts for each ballot group, so that may be one way to isolate the 
> votes into smaller groupings: if you are lucky enough to have many 
> ballot groups ("ballot group" meaning a set of voters voting on the 
> exact same set of election contests, and thus they can all use the 
> same ballot).
>
> But as jurisdictions move to by-mail balloting and/or vote centers, 
> this does become a major issue.
>
> California addressed this with its "Vote Center" legislation, which 
> empowers counties to use "vote centers" instead of precincts for 
> election administration: but the legislation required that the 
> counties report the election results at the small-precinct level:
>
>     Elections Code Section 4005 (f)
>     <https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/elections-code/elec-sect-4005.html>
>
>     For the sole purpose of reporting the results of an election
>     conducted pursuant to this section, upon completion of the ballot
>     count, the county elections official shall divide the jurisdiction
>     into precincts pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with Section
>     12220) of Chapter 3 of Division 12 and shall prepare a statement
>     of the results of the election in accordance with Sections 15373
>     and 15374.
>
>
> I am not sure how OR and WA have handled this in their vote-by-mail 
> rules, or if they addressed it at all.
>
> - Douglas Johnson
> President, National Demographics Corporation
> djohnson at NDCresearch.com
>
>
> On Fri, May 1, 2020 at 12:18 PM George Korbel <korbellaw at hotmail.com 
> <mailto:korbellaw at hotmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     In tx the dist courts have found it for exist the Court has
>
>     Get Outlook for iOS <https://aka.ms/o0ukef>
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     *From:* Law-election
>     <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
>     <mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu>> on behalf
>     of Jeff Wice <jmwice at gmail.com <mailto:jmwice at gmail.com>>
>     *Sent:* Friday, May 1, 2020 2:10:19 PM
>     *To:* Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu
>     <mailto:law-election at uci.edu>>
>     *Subject:* [EL] Question about mail-in ballots and VRA Section 2
>     analsyes
>
>     Dr. Lisa Handley recently pointed out to me an issue related to
>     mail-in ballots and Voting Rights Section 2 compliance.
>     Determining if a redistricting plan complies with Section 2 of the
>     Voting Rights Act requires a racial bloc voting analysis and this
>     is conducted using election precinct returns and other election
>     precinct data.
>
>     Several counties do not report (and some states do not require)
>     mail-in ballots to be allocated back to the election precinct
>     level but instead simply tabulate and report the votes at the
>     county level. This would  not permit anyone to conduct a racial
>     bloc voting analysis.
>
>     In these situations, is there any way to ensure that mail-in
>     ballots be reported at the election precinct level as opposed to
>     the county level?
>
>     Jeff Wice
>     Adjunct Professor/Senior Fellow
>     New York Law School
>     185 West Broadway
>     New York, NY 10013
>
>
>     Sent from Polymail
>     <https://share.polymail.io/v1/z/b/NWVhYzczODc0Yzhi/m23DAIkvzrdXVwCRd0_AzLQS9hrhIVj_zX1ahXBXZMiNB_eGD5dm7_qS5HHltMvrOrimkWctnBuMuDJx4HuNzxPQXrqR4RjxT9wxY6Shiw-zKS2JwXysixD75JFRUOvaRSJzsn4PTipY4LPx__hDoUtZWTvSHyRtx8wJisQ4sgSJsVNQt4gpm0k2zTQ3PwrmlDronxvwB9AMcVpJXMofkfXl0tUK9h1MC0_1p299T9SA4GiT81VK4wG6eMdFEcF8bFQV>
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>
>
> -- 
> - Doug
>
> Douglas Johnson
> National Demographics Corporation
> djohnson at NDCresearch.com
> phone 310-200-2058
> fax 818-254-1221
>
>
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