[EL] Justice Alito PA order/more news
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Fri Nov 6 16:56:33 PST 2020
Breaking: Justice Alito Issues Order Requiring That All Pennsylvania Counties Segregate (and Potentially Separately Count) Ballots Received After Polling Deadline<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118260>
Posted on November 6, 2020 4:52 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118260> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
You can find the order directed to county election boards here<https://twitter.com/johnkruzel/status/1324875424405581833>.
The order follows the PA GOP telling Justice Alito that not all counties had indicated that they would follow the guidance as well as tweaks that the PA Secretary of State made to that guidance. Justice Alito also wants a response by 2 pm tomorrow.
What does this mean? It essentially preserves the status quo and leaves open the possibility that these later ballots could be excluded from a count should there be further action. There was no court order requiring this action and now there is one.
Unless the presidential election comes down to Pennsylvania and comes down to what is reportedly a relatively small number of ballots arriving in the three day post-election period, this won’t matter at all. But those ballots could well matter in other races, and likely must still be counted in state and local races, which would not be subject to the court’s order.
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Posted in Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
Running List of Election Litigation Related to Presidential Elections<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118258>
Posted on November 6, 2020 3:24 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118258> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
From John Kruzel.<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VmrJ7ZSG-HmNshJvF-LGtq6jNeN6MtelZKRtqQf-JyA/edit>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“Trump Says He Will Keep Fighting as Aides Doubt Path Forward; President’s advisers point fingers over campaign’s legal strategy”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118256>
Posted on November 6, 2020 3:22 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118256> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WSJ<https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-says-he-will-keep-fighting-as-aides-doubt-path-forward-11604702837>:
President Trump said Friday he would continue to fight election results that showed him on the cusp of losing <https://www.wsj.com/articles/election-2020-results-trump-biden-11-06-2020-11604665986> to former Vice President Joe Biden. Privately, people familiar with the conversations say, advisers are urging him to prepare for that eventuality.
Mr. Trump’s campaign on Friday named David Bossie, one of the president’s closest political confidants, to head up its legal team. The addition of Mr. Bossie, who isn’t an attorney, comes three days after polls closed and after some lawsuits challenging results <https://www.wsj.com/articles/election-2020-trumps-lawsuits-are-getting-mixed-results-11604617463> had been dismissed while others remained active.
Some advisers have privately acknowledged there is little path forward, politically or legally, that would prevent Mr. Trump from becoming the first president to lose reelection in the 21st century.
Among the president’s advisers, finger-pointing over the campaign’s legal strategy has intensified in recent days, White House and campaign aides said. Aides have expressed acute frustration over what they see as a slapdash effort, complaining that—even though Mr. Trump spent months telegraphing his intent to fight the election outcome in the courts—there wasn’t enough planning ahead of Election Day and has been little follow-through on decisions made this week. For days after the election, advisers said they didn’t know who was in charge of the strategy….
On Thursday, campaign officials met with White House counsel Pat Cipollone and others to go through the campaign’s remaining legal options, a Republican official said. The group determined that the campaign had pursued every legal option at that point to challenge the results or voting methods.
On Thursday night, advisers warned Mr. Trump to prepare to lose, according to a person familiar with the conversation. He expressed little interest in that advice.
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
“Pennsylvania GOP asks Supreme Court to stop Pennsylvania from counting votes received after November 3”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118254>
Posted on November 6, 2020 2:15 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118254> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Ariane de Vogue:<https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-biden-election-results-11-06-20/h_a66b8e926009bbef839f73e283ad36c6>
Lawyers for Pennsylvania Republicans are asking<http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2020/images/11/06/20a84.pdf> the US Supreme Court to order the state to not take any action on any mail-in ballots received after Election Day, November 3.
The Pennsylvania secretary of state has already ordered any ballots that arrive between Wednesday, November 4, and Friday, November 6, be segregated from those that arrived by Election Day, pending ongoing litigation, and the state GOP’s request simply asks the court to enforce that action as well as order that “no action” is taken on the ballots.
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Posted in Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“Trump and GOP lawsuits thus far challenging few ballots with no proof of fraud”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118252>
Posted on November 6, 2020 2:04 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118252> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
CNN reports.<https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/06/politics/lawsuits-trump-gop-proof/index.html>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“Trump’s False Election Fraud Claims Split Republicans”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118250>
Posted on November 6, 2020 1:56 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118250> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/us/politics/trump-election-republicans.html>:
Republican reaction to President Trump’s baseless claims<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/us/politics/trump-presidency.html> of election fraud ranged widely Friday, from vigorous agreement to sharp condemnations, and in between some carefully constructed statements supporting the idea of fair elections without any endorsement of the president’s fabricated assertions of an election conspiracy.
“Here’s how this must work in our great country: Every legal vote should be counted,” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, wrote on Twitter<https://twitter.com/senatemajldr/status/1324697471654789120> Friday morning. “Any illegally-submitted ballots must not. All sides must get to observe the process. And the courts are here to apply the laws & resolve disputes.”
“That’s how Americans’ votes decide the result,” he added.
Notably absent from Mr. McConnell’s statement was any suggestion that Democrats were stealing the election through an elaborate national conspiracy that included pollsters and the news media, as Mr. Trump asserted with no evidence in a rambling news conference<https://www.c-span.org/video/?477858-1/president-trump-challenges-latest-election-results-claims-voter-fraud> on Thursday. It also implicitly rejected Mr. Trump’s fruitless calls for a halt to vote counting in states where his early leads have been threatened or eliminated.
In a stinging statement<https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EmKBnZKX0AAzJex.jpg>, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah said that Mr. Trump, while free to request recounts and present valid evidence of fraud, “is wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen — doing so weakens the cause of freedom here and around the world, weakens the institutions that lie at the foundations of the republic, and recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions.”
As Mr. Trump and his die-hard allies maintained that the vote in Pennsylvania<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-pennsylvania.html> — where his early lead over former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., evaporated on Friday — was badly corrupted, that state’s Republican senator, Patrick J. Toomey, condemned Mr. Trump’s claims.
“The president’s speech last night was very disturbing to me because he made very, very serious allegations without any evidence to support it,” Mr. Toomey told “CBS This Morning.”<https://www.cbs.com/shows/cbs_this_morning/video/jN5PnlGTUhBq3w5lVGAI_3pCNfwlZbhw/republican-pennsylvania-senator-toomey-on-election-results-trump-s-claim-of-voter-fraud/>
“I am not aware of any significant fraud, any significant wrongdoing,” he added.
Some Republicans seem prepared to defend Mr. Trump’s position without reservation, however.
“President Trump won this election,” Representative Kevin McCarthy of California told the Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Thursday night. “So everyone who’s listening: Do not be quiet. Do not be silent about this. We cannot allow this to happen before our very eyes.”
Claiming that poll watchers have not been able to watch vote counts, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas tweeted a link<https://twitter.com/tomcottonar/status/1324458020391313408> to Mr. Trump’s legal defense fund, with the headline, in all capital letters, “The Democrats Will Try to Steal This Election.”
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>
“Upwards of 100,000 provisional ballots in Pa. could further delay a winner being named”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118248>
Posted on November 6, 2020 1:34 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118248> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Spotlight PA reports<https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/spl/provisional-ballot-pennsylvania-counting-election-2020-20201106.html>.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“‘Get to TCF’: What really happened inside Detroit’s ballot counting center”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118246>
Posted on November 6, 2020 12:47 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118246> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Deep dive<https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2020/11/06/tcf-center-detroit-ballot-counting/6173577002/> in the Detroit Free Press:
Chris Thomas, a former long-time director of elections for the Michigan Secretary of State, addressed the concerns of Republican challengers and debunked rumors of foulplay that circulated on social media.
Thomas, who has worked for both Democratic and Republican Secretaries of State, and who has offered constructive criticism of the Detroit clerk’s performance in previous elections, said he was “extremely confident” that Detroit’s final vote tally will be right.
“They’re in a good position to come through with a nice clean report,” Thomas said. “I don’t have any questions about it.”
Thomas also debunked rumors that every Republican challenger had been removed from the counting room, and, that ballots were sneaked into the room in coolers and a wagon.
Neither were true, said Thomas, noting that had secret ballots arrived, Republican challengers inside the room would have raised a ruckus and he would have been notified.
“I didn’t hear that,” Thomas said.
And there was no favoritism shown to any of the challengers, said Thomas, who refuted claims that all Republican were removed. As he spoke, there were more than 100 Republican challengers still freely roaming the counting room, with only four tables left counting.
“Nobody was mistreated,” Thomas said, referring to all challengers.
Thomas, who has been working with Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey’s team to improve procedures, spent long hours overseeing the counting before heading out late Wednesday night.
While at TCF, Thomas explained that election officials sought to make sure “that the rules are being followed,” and that challengers “have only 1 person per table at about 134 tables.”
“We just want to make sure that we don’t have too much chaos going on in here,” said Thomas, responding to Republicans’ allegations that they were unfairly left out of the process. “People are trying to work, get the job done.”
Unfortunately, Thomas said, some challengers don’t understand the rules of the counting process.
“Challengers are usually confused” when they first arrive, he said. “A lot of them don’t know the intricacies of the process.”
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>
“Trump-linked figures have boosted #StopTheSteal movement”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118244>
Posted on November 6, 2020 12:25 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118244> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Politico<https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/06/trump-linked-figures-boosted-stopthesteal-movement-434733>:
Demonstrations across the country protesting alleged fraud in this week’s election have ties to major conservative activist groups and MAGA personalities affiliated with President Donald Trump, according to multiple misinformation researchers.
Many of these protests have been organized by prominent, well-funded pro-Trump groups such as Tea Party Patriots, Women for America First, Turning Point USA and Freedom Works USA, according to analyses from several research institutions.
One of the first avenues for organizing, a Facebook group called #StopTheSteal, was created by Amy Kremer, a longtime conservative activist with Tea Party roots and founder of the pro-Trump group Women for America First. The Facebook group collected more than 350,000 members in just over 24 hours before it was banned by the social media company for promoting violence
The group’s other administrators were even more prominent conservative activists with close ties to Steve Bannon, the former manager of Trump’s 2016 campaign and the ex-chair of the conservative news organization Breitbart, according to data collected by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that tracks online extremism and misinformation.
The page’s rapid surge in membership was also helped by promotion from conservative activists and pro-Trump Facebook groups online. And for a group that existed for just over a day, it had an outsized, real-world impact….
Yet the affiliation between the #StopTheSteal groups and Trump’s camp show that this “spirit” is supported, encouraged and occasionally manufactured by Trump’s own allies. It’s part of Trumpworld’s broader attempt to gin up outrage about misleading and false claims of voter fraud, thus giving Trump a way to claim the public is behind him.
“This is definitely not just organic, up-from-the-grassroots disinformation,” said Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory and Facebook’s former security chief. “There are professionals here who are pushing some of this stuff based upon exactly what is going on in the polls and in the real-world arguments over the election.”
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>
“Trump lawyer calls military ballots cast in Nevada ‘criminal voter fraud'”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118242>
Posted on November 6, 2020 12:20 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118242> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
News 3 Las Vegas<https://news3lv.com/news/local/trump-lawyer-points-to-military-ballots-as-evidence-of-voter-fraud>:
Should Nevada residents who are serving overseas in the military be allowed to vote?
Both federal and local laws say yes, but a letter sent to the Department of Justice by a lawyer representing the Donald Trump campaign doesn’t think so.
Attorney Shana D. Weir, representing Donald J. Trump for President Inc., sent a letter to United States Attorney General William Barr on Thursday claiming to have evidence of “criminal voter fraud” in the state of Nevada.
Specifically, they have a list of 3,062 voters who voted in the 2020 presidential election, even though the National Change of Address database shows have moved out of Nevada….
The list provided by Weir gives no way of telling how long these voters have been out of town, and how many are in college. However, the data shows something telling — many of the votes that Weir claims to be fraudulent have overseas military addresses.
To be specific, 132 of the out-of-town addresses listed have Army Post Office addresses — addresses used for active service Army and Air Force personnel serving overseas….
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Posted in military voting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=48>
Why Hasn’t Pennsylvania Been Called Yet? Apparently a Large Number of Provisional Ballots (Skewing More Toward Republicans Than in Normal Years)<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118240>
Posted on November 6, 2020 12:08 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118240> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Very helpful explainer<https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1324797005835755520> from Steve Kornacki.
I know people are impatient but it is better to get things right if there is any doubt.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“Op-Ed: What America should learn from this harrowing election”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118238>
Posted on November 6, 2020 9:32 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118238> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Franita Tolson LAT<https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-11-06/joe-biden-donald-trump-election-lessons> oped:
However, all the blame game does is gloss over the key structural failure in our system of elections that, even in conditions of historic voter turnout, permits states to suppress that turnout and disenfranchise a significant number of voters for no good reason.
Voter suppression and disenfranchisement cannot be explained by a polling error or political strategy gone awry. This is a first-order issue of democratic legitimacy because states make it needlessly difficult for people to vote in a system that holds itself out as a democracy. As such, having more reliable polling or running more targeted campaigns won’t solve this problem. Neither will fixing the electoral college. Even if we let the people pick the president directly, some combination of states would still make it difficult for segments of their populations to cast ballots.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“The repugnant plan brewing for state legislatures to steal the election must be stopped “<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118236>
Posted on November 6, 2020 9:20 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=118236> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Ned Foley<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/06/state-legislatures-electoral-college-steal/> at WaPo.
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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
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Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
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http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>
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