[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/11/20

[Rick Hasen]

“Democrats move to allow remote voting or a virtual summer convention”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111313>
Posted on May 11, 2020 8:51 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111313> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-move-to-allow-remote-voting-or-a-virtual-summer-convention/2020/05/11/bfcf7c96-93c9-11ea-9f5e-56d8239bf9ad_story.html>:

The Democratic Party plans to adopt new rules Tuesday to narrow the scope of its presidential nominating convention, potentially paving the way for either a limited in-person gathering or a virtual event this August.

The proposed changes, which are expected to be adopted in virtual meeting of the party’s rules and bylaws committee, would allow delegates to participate even if they do not attend the convention in person. No final decision on the convention is expected to be made in coming weeks as organizers await a decision by federal, state and local health officials.

The convention had originally been planned for July in Milwaukee, but was moved back a month in hopes that restrictions forced by the coronavirus<https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/28/what-you-need-know-about-coronavirus/?tid=lk_inline_manual_3&itid=lk_inline_manual_3> pandemic would ease by then.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said over the weekend that she had told Democratic Party Chair Tom Perez that the nearly week-long event could be held over a single day at an outdoor stadium….

By adopting the proposed rule changes Tuesday, Democrats will open the door to another possibility — a much smaller in-person event, which can be attended by some but not all of the nearly 5,000 voting delegates and tens of thousands of other guests.
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Posted in political parties<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>


Another Lawsuit Filed Over Absentee Ballot Procedures in Texas<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111310>
Posted on May 11, 2020 3:35 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111310> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Details here<https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/41/2020/05/PR_New-Texas-Voting-Rights-Lawsuit_20200511.pdf>.

Note: An earlier version of this post says that it was filed by Democrats. Although Marc Elias is one of the lead lawyers, the plaintiffs are not<https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1259977185265356802> Democratic party organizations.
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Posted in absentee ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>, The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“What happens if Bush-Gore result happens again with Trump-Biden?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111308>
Posted on May 11, 2020 3:34 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111308> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Steven Rosenfeld:<https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/265025541/what-happens-if-bush-gore-result-happens-again-with-trump-biden>

With six months to go until November’s 2020 election, dozens of America’s top legal minds convened to consider what would have been unthinkable before Donald Trump’s presidency. They gathered to brainstorm what could be done to prevent the country from descending into a “civil war-like scenario,” as one participant put it, if Trump and Joe Biden both claim that they won the presidency-and won’t back down.

Their May 4 teleconference<https://moritzlaw.osu.edu/election-law/event/expert-roundtable-2020-disputed-election/> parsed a series of nightmare scenarios in the aftermath of the November 3 election that would lead to competing Electoral College results being sent to Congress from battleground states-one issued by a Republican legislature backing Trump, and another issued by the Democratic governor backing Biden.

The scenarios continued onto January 6, 2021, where, in a joint congressional session to ratify the Electoral College votes presided over by Vice President Mike Pence, the House and Senate were sent to their chambers to debate for two hours. When they reconvened, the Senate backed the Trump electors while the House backed the Biden slate.

The question put before the scholars was what could stop the 2020 election from spiraling that far out of control or going even further downhill, as occurred in the 1876 presidential election when two candidates claimed to win, waged relentless partisan battles, and were both planning separate inaugurations-with Samuel Tilden backing down only 48 hours before Rutherford B. Hayes was sworn in as president.

“My big fear, as a country, is that we don’t know our history well enough to know that we came within 48 hours of inauguration day with two people claiming to be president, and the incumbent thinking about martial law-that was Ulysses Grant because he was worried that there were going to be two simultaneous inauguration sessions,” said Edward B. Foley<https://moritzlaw.osu.edu/faculty/edward-b-foley/>, director of Moritz College of Law’s election law program at Ohio State University and a national authority<https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ballot-battles-9780190235277?cc=us&lang=en&> on disputed presidential elections. He organized the brainstorming session with Steven F. Huefner<https://moritzlaw.osu.edu/briefing-room/tag/steven-f-huefner/>, a Moritz senior fellow and former U.S. Senate counsel who also is an expert on vote-counting disputes.
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Posted in Election Meltdown<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=127>


“Ohio Democrats call for streamlined ballot requests, expanded voter registration for November election”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111306>
Posted on May 11, 2020 3:32 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111306> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Cleveland.com reports<https://www.cleveland.com/open/2020/05/ohio-democrats-call-for-streamlined-ballot-requests-expanded-voter-registration-for-november-election.html>.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“Civil rights groups seek to block Judicial Watch lawsuit and avoid a purge of Pennsylvania voter rolls”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111304>
Posted on May 11, 2020 3:30 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111304> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Philly Inquirer reports<https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pennsylvania-judicial-watch-voter-roll-civil-rights-groups-20200511.html>.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Voting Rights & Election Integrity at the Time of COVID-19”–I’ll Be Giving This Talk on June 4<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111302>
Posted on May 11, 2020 3:28 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111302> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Part of<https://www.law.uci.edu/news/press-releases/2020/covid-19-law-lecture-series.html> UCI Law’s COVID-19 and the Law lecture series.

Details<https://calendar.law.uci.edu/event/covid-19_the_law_voting_rights_and_election_integrity_at_the_time_of_covid-19#.XrnReRNKjSw> to RSVP and get CLE credit.
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Posted in Election Meltdown<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=127>


“Feds Warn States That Online Voting Experiments Are ‘High-Risk'”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111300>
Posted on May 11, 2020 3:25 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111300> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NPR<https://www.npr.org/2020/05/11/853759878/feds-warn-states-that-online-voting-experiments-are-high-risk?utm_campaign=politics&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews&utm_source=twitter.com>:

The federal government is letting states know it considers online voting to be a “high-risk” way of running elections even if all recommended security protocols are followed.

It’s the latest development in the debate over Internet voting as a few states <https://www.npr.org/2020/04/28/844581667/states-expand-internet-voting-experiments-amid-pandemic-raising-security-fears> have announced they plan to offer it to voters with disabilities this year, while security experts have voiced grave warnings against doing so.

An eight-page report distributed to states last week recommends mail-in ballots as a more secure method of voting. It was co-authored by four federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

“We recommend paper ballot return as electronic ballot return technologies are high-risk even with controls in place,” says the document<https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/Final_%20Risk_Management_for_Electronic-Ballot_05082020.pdf?mod=article_inline>, according to a copy obtained by The Wall Street Journal. A source with knowledge of the document confirmed its authenticity to NPR.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voting technology<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>


“Lincoln Project Ad Removal Highlights Facebook Double Standard; PolitiFact labeled one claim false in a Lincoln Project ad, but the primary message was true. Facebook removed it but allows Trump ads to lie unchecked.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111298>
Posted on May 11, 2020 3:23 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111298> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Rantt Media reports.<https://rantt.com/facebook-removes-lincoln-project-ad>
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, social media and social protests<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=58>


“The pandemic will drive up election costs, and so far NC isn’t ready”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111296>
Posted on May 11, 2020 3:22 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111296> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WRAL reports.<https://www.wral.com/coronavirus/the-pandemic-will-drive-up-election-costs-and-so-far-nc-isn-t-ready/19093559/>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Putin Is Well on His Way to Stealing the Next Election”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111294>
Posted on May 11, 2020 3:20 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111294> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Franklin Foer<https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/putin-american-democracy/610570/?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_term=2020-05-11T10%253A01%253A00&utm_medium=social&utm_content=edit-promo> for The Atlantic:

Jack Cable is a small emblem of how the U.S. government has struggled to outpace the Russians. After he spent the better part of a semester shouting into the wind, officials in Chicago and in the governor’s office finally took notice of his warnings and repaired their websites. Cable may have a further role to play in defending America’s election infrastructure. He is part of a team of competitive hackers at Stanford—national champions three years running—that caught the attention of Alex Stamos, a former head of security at Facebook, who now teaches at the university. Earlier this year, Stamos asked the Department of Homeland Security if he could pull together a group of undergraduates, Cable included, to lend Washington a hand in the search for bugs. “It’s talent, but unrefined talent,” Stamos told me. DHS, which has an acute understanding of the problem at hand but limited resources to solve it, accepted Stamos’s offer. Less than six months before Election Day, the government will attempt to identify democracy’s most glaring weakness by deploying college kids on their summer break.

Despite such well-intentioned efforts, the nation’s vulnerabilities have widened, not narrowed, during the past four years. Our politics are even more raw and fractured than in 2016; our faith in government—and, perhaps, democracy itself—is further strained. The coronavirus may meaningfully exacerbate these problems; at a minimum, the pandemic is leeching attention and resources from election defense. The president, meanwhile, has dismissed Russian interference as a hoax and fired or threatened intelligence officials who have contradicted that narrative, all while professing his affinity for the very man who ordered this assault on American democracy. Fiona Hill, the scholar who served as the top Russia expert on Trump’s National Security Council, told me, “The fact that they faced so little consequence for their action gives them little reason to stop.”

The Russians have learned much about American weaknesses, and how to exploit them. Having probed state voting systems far more extensively than is generally understood by the public, they are now surely more capable of mayhem on Election Day—and possibly without leaving a detectable trace of their handiwork. Having hacked into the inboxes of political operatives in the U.S. and abroad, they’ve pioneered new techniques for infiltrating campaigns and disseminating their stolen goods. Even as to disinformation, the best-known and perhaps most overrated of their tactics, they have innovated, finding new ways to manipulate Americans and to poison the nation’s politics. Russia’s interference in 2016 might be remembered as the experimental prelude that foreshadowed the attack of 2020.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“Virus concerns close churches, other voting sites for Georgia primary”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111292>
Posted on May 11, 2020 3:16 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111292> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AJC:<https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/virus-concerns-close-churches-other-voting-sites-for-georgia-primary/o6Ri26ArzR6shl4FWuNe0O/>

Some churches, senior centers and fire stations are shutting their doors because of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving Georgia voters with fewer places to cast their ballots in the June 9 primary.

Polling places have closed<https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/voting-precincts-closed-across-georgia-since-election-oversight-lifted/bBkHxptlim0Gp9pKu7dfrN/> across Georgia, but especially in Fulton County, where more than 30 locations told election officials they’re unwilling to host voters on election day.

The loss of precincts leaves fewer options for voters, increasing the danger of groups gathering to vote in fewer places.

While nearly 1.3 million people have requested<https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/over-million-georgia-voters-request-absentee-ballots/gfEtMitQBrE34Gj7zEmtFO/> absentee ballots, in-person voting must remain available during three weeks of early voting starting May 18 and on election day June 9, according to state law.

Voting locations in churches are the most vulnerable.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“Effects of Automatic Voter Registration in the United States”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111289>
Posted on May 11, 2020 10:06 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111289> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

New report<https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57b8c7ce15d5dbf599fb46ab/t/5eb9847fb7a1f3362ced2d99/1589216438166/USC+CCEP+Effects+of+AVR+in+the+U.S.+Final.pdf> by Eric McGhee and Mindy Romero. From the summary:

Automatic voter registration (AVR) laws take advantage of transactions at government agencies where applicant information can be captured and repurposed to register citizens to vote. Implementation varies, but the core idea is always to make eligible residents actively decline registration if they do not want it. The reform movement is still quite young, so there is little information about how effective AVR has been in the U.S. context. Oregon was the first to adopt a law generally agreed to be AVR, and of the 21 states that have adopted by the time of this writing, only 18 have actually implemented the reform and 12 of those did so by the 2018 General Election (see Figure 1). Thus, systematic evidence of the effects of these laws has been limited.

In this report we begin to address this gap by analyzing the effect of AVR on registration rates in four out of the 12 states that have implemented AVR thus far (Oregon, Colorado, California, and Delaware). We limit ourselves to registration rates because higher registration is arguably the most basic intended consequence of the AVR reform. Our data and methodological approach also permit us to examine key underrepresented groups that many election officials and voter advocacy organizations have hoped AVR would draw onto the registration rolls: Latinos, Asian Americans, and young people.

Our results suggest the consequences of AVR depend on the state and the type of outcome. The reforms appear to be very effective at making the DMV a primary method of registration. In many cases, the reform has reshaped the boom-and-bust pattern of registration in a typical election cycle by ensuring that registrants are steadily added throughout the year and voter records are kept updated. This will likely have the long term effect of a sizable increase in registration.

However, with one exception the AVR programs we look at are quite young, so this process of steady registration increase has not had much time to have an effect. Thus, the evidence for increased registration so far is ambiguous in the context of recent elections that have seen enthusiastic registration and turnout even without reform. More assertive approaches to AVR that have been adopted in Oregon and Alaska might be more successful at increasing registration rates. However, such systems come with important concerns about accidentally registering non-citizens; the challenges in any given state could be considerable.

In addition, we see no clear evidence that AVR has closed gaps in registration between historically overrepresented and historically underrepresented groups. The data for underrepresented groups sometimes show their strong use of AVR over other methods of registration, but without clearly demonstrating an improvement in their registration that was directly caused by reform. Neither do we see clear signs of a worsening position for these groups due to AVR; instead, the evidence is simply too ambiguous at this point to make a firm conclusion.

In short, AVR is promising but the conclusions we can make at this point are not firm. The COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily cut off access to many of the government agencies that serve as touch points for AVR. But when AVR access begins again, it will be important to continue monitoring it as it develops over time.

There’s a related webinar at noon pacific. Registration info here.<https://uscprice.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OVfUTW1tSTWXWtGZQb4_Zw>
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Posted in voter registration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=37>


“The Cybersecurity 202: Internet-based voting is the new front in the election security wars”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111286>
Posted on May 11, 2020 7:29 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111286> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Washington Post reports.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-cybersecurity-202/2020/05/11/the-cybersecurity-202-internet-based-voting-is-the-new-front-in-the-election-security-wars/5eb85e4e602ff11bb1179347/>
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voting technology<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>


“Election Officials Face Imminent Deadlines and Lack of Funds to Buy Equipment and Supplies for Covid-19-Safe Voting in November”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111284>
Posted on May 11, 2020 7:27 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=111284> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Brennan Center release<https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/election-officials-face-imminent-deadlines-and-lack-funds-buy-equipment>.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


--
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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