[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/4/20

[Rick Hasen]

MONDAY: Important Virtual Conference at Ohio State: “What If the 2020 Presidential Election is Disputed?: An Expert Roundtable Discussion May 4, 2020 | 11:00 am – 4:30 pm”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111013>
Posted on May 3, 2020 8:01 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111013> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

[Bumping to the top]

This<https://moritzlaw.osu.edu/election-law/event/expert-roundtable-2020-disputed-election/> is a very important conversation Monday:

REGISTER NOW<https://osu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7zIi69ciQvidFxvVuRE8Rg>

Pull up a (virtual) seat as a panel of nationally recognized legal scholars, political scientists, and experts in election administration, Electoral College procedures, and presidential succession grapples with the legal issues that could arise in a series of hypothetical scenarios involving the 2020 presidential election.

The conversations will be divided into three distinct time frames from Election Day to Inauguration Day when complex legal issues could test our electoral process in new and serious ways.

This event is not merely an academic exercise, but an effort to identify the potential legal risks looming over the election and spark a national discussion about how we can put our country in a better position to handle similar scenarios should they arise.

(This is one webinar which you will be able to join and re-join throughout the day.)

Session One
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM (EDT)
From Election Day (Nov 3) to Meeting of Electors (Dec 14)
Click to review each hypothetical scenario that will serve as the basis for the discussion:
1.1 Philadelphians experienced delays receiving absentee ballots<https://spark.adobe.com/page/d3gUQHBysRwHP/>
1.2 Michigan’s election night results flip after “late counted” ballots<https://spark.adobe.com/page/bykGHbOQCmXDu/>
1.3 Florida hurricane prevented voting on Election Day<https://spark.adobe.com/page/I0XN1MEQd0cYr/>

Session Two
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM (EDT)
From Meeting of Electors (Dec 14) to Joint Session of Congress (Jan 6)
Click to review each hypothetical scenario that happens in the aftermath of those in Session One:
2.1 Pennsylvania sends two conflicting sets of electoral votes to Congress<https://spark.adobe.com/page/9ljIZ8v7fHtiU/>
2.2 Michigan also sends two conflicting sets, but raising different issues<https://spark.adobe.com/page/pzaxVDxzRxNWy/>
2.3 Florida legislature appoints its electors after no election is held<https://spark.adobe.com/page/bJohaera7mG8Z/>

Session Three
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM (EDT)
From Joint Session of Congress (Jan 6) to Inauguration Day (Jan 20)
Click to review the hypothetical scenarios for Session Three:
3.1 House and Senate are divided on which sets of electoral votes to accept from Pennsylvania and Michigan<https://spark.adobe.com/page/9ppkEuuNq8fua/>
3.2 Congress decides to invalidate Florida’s electoral votes; what happens to the Electoral College math?<https://spark.adobe.com/page/jPauwPlfE71bD/>
3.3 Can Mike Pence preside over the Joint Session of Congress in an Electoral College dispute?<https://spark.adobe.com/page/n280TPD0rWYRQ/>
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D111013&title=MONDAY%3A%20Important%20Virtual%20Conference%20at%20Ohio%20State%3A%20%E2%80%9CWhat%20If%20the%202020%20Presidential%20Election%20is%20Disputed%3F%3A%20An%20Expert%20Roundtable%20Discussion%20May%204%2C%202020%20%7C%2011%3A00%20am%20%E2%80%93%204%3A30%20pm%E2%80%9D>
Posted in electoral college<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=44>


“Can state or federal courts order post offices to postmark absentee ballots? To stay open late on election day?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111150>
Posted on May 3, 2020 8:01 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111150> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Josh Blackman blogs<https://reason.com/2020/05/03/can-state-or-federal-courts-order-post-offices-to-postmark-absentee-ballots-to-stay-open-late-on-election-day/>.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D111150&title=%E2%80%9CCan%20state%20or%20federal%20courts%20order%20post%20offices%20to%20postmark%20absentee%20ballots%3F%20To%20stay%20open%20late%20on%20election%20day%3F%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“The Legal Fight Over Voting Rights During The Pandemic Is Getting Hotter”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111148>
Posted on May 3, 2020 7:35 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111148> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Pam Fessler<https://www.npr.org/2020/05/02/849090889/the-legal-fight-over-voting-rights-during-the-pandemic-is-getting-hotter> reports for NPR.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D111148&title=%E2%80%9CThe%20Legal%20Fight%20Over%20Voting%20Rights%20During%20The%20Pandemic%20Is%20Getting%20Hotter%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Ballot Printers Increase Capacity To Prepare For Mail Voting Surge”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111146>
Posted on May 3, 2020 7:34 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111146> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Pam Fessler<https://www.npr.org/2020/05/03/848347895/ballot-printers-increase-capacity-to-prepare-for-mail-voting-surge?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter> reports for NPR.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D111146&title=%E2%80%9CBallot%20Printers%20Increase%20Capacity%20To%20Prepare%20For%20Mail%20Voting%20Surge%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Unexpected outcome in Wisconsin: Tens of thousands of ballots that arrived after voting day were counted, thanks to court decisions”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111144>
Posted on May 3, 2020 1:58 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111144> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/unexpected-outcome-in-wisconsin-tens-of-thousands-of-ballots-that-arrived-after-voting-day-were-counted-thanks-to-court-decisions/2020/05/03/20c036f0-8a59-11ea-9dfd-990f9dcc71fc_story.html>

Early last month, voters in Wisconsin navigated a dizzying number of rule changes governing the state’s spring elections as officials tussled over the risks of the novel coronavirus<https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/28/what-you-need-know-about-coronavirus/?tid=lk_inline_manual_2&itid=lk_inline_manual_2>, prompting a backlog of absentee ballot requests and fears that many would not be able to participate.

But in the end, tens of thousands of mail ballots that arrived after the April 7 primary vote were counted by local officials, a review by The Washington Post has found — the unexpected result of last-minute intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Milwaukee and Madison alone, the state’s two largest cities, more than 10 percent of all votes counted, nearly 21,000 ballots, arrived by mail after April 7, according to data provided by local election officials.

The surprising outcome after warnings that many Wisconsinites would be disenfranchised amid the pandemic was the result of a largely unexamined aspect of the court’s decision that temporarily changed which ballots were counted. Because of the order, election officials for the first time tallied absentee ballots postmarked by voting day, rather than just those received by then — underscoring the power of narrow court decisions to significantly shape which votes are counted.

What happened in Wisconsin has potentially far-reaching implications as the two parties square off in courtrooms across the country, hoping to notch legal victories that will shape the electorate in their favor before November.

Democrats think they have secured a game-changing precedent from the Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 order. In the past week alone, lawsuits bankrolled by Democratic committees have been filed in four states seeking similar postmark rules and citing the Wisconsin opinion to bolster their argument. More cases are expected in the coming week.

Republicans, meanwhile, say they are prepared to spend millions of dollars to oppose these efforts, arguing that extending ballot deadlines creates an opportunity for fraud. Some have also been open in their view that higher turnout could harm them politically. On March 30, President Trump said that if Democratic efforts to expand mail balloting succeeded, “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”…

The Post’s review found that the impact was more complicated. Fewer votes were counted than if the lower courts’ orders had remained in place. But the Supreme Court’s decision superseded the stricter existing law, expanding the universe of valid ballots compared to previous elections.

In all, The Post found that more than 30,000 votes arrived after voting day in 11 cities where that information was available, more than 10 percent of all votes cast in those cities. In Brookfield, a western suburb of Milwaukee in conservative Waukesha County, the figure was closer to 15 percent….

In 13 cities where the data was available, at least 4,500 ballots were thrown out that would have been tallied under the lower court judge’s ruling, The Post found….

Thousands of ballots were rejected because of postmark issues, The Post’s examination found. Hundreds were rejected because of a late postmark, but many hundreds more showed no postmark or an illegible one. In Milwaukee, that number was 390, and city election officials chose to count those ballots anyway. Most other localities discarded such ballots, even though many may have been posted on time.

Several election officials said some post offices do not use postmarks with dates, but that their hands were tied by the high court’s ruling.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D111144&title=%E2%80%9CUnexpected%20outcome%20in%20Wisconsin%3A%20Tens%20of%20thousands%20of%20ballots%20that%20arrived%20after%20voting%20day%20were%20counted%2C%20thanks%20to%20court%20decisions%E2%80%9D>
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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