[EL] ELB News and Commentary 10/1/20

[Rick Hasen]

“Remember When Trump Claimed Fraud in Florida?; The findings of Florida’s 18-month inquiry into allegations of ballot fraud in 2018 received little attention when they were released this year. But they proved the president wrong.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116082>
Posted on October 1, 2020 11:17 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116082> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT reports.<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/us/politics/trump-florida-ballot-fraud.html>
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


Washington Post Quotes Republicans “Privately Expressing Alarm” About Trump Debate Comments: But Is the Alarm Over the Baseless Voter Fraud Claims and Nod to White Supremacy or GOP Electoral Chances?<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116079>
Posted on October 1, 2020 11:14 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116079> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Ambiguous WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-debate-fallout-proud-boys/2020/09/30/89dd548e-0334-11eb-897d-3a6201d6643f_story.html>

The aftermath of the first presidential debate<https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/08/14/presidential-debates/?itid=lk_inline_manual_1> between President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden triggered a reckoning among Republicans on Wednesday about the incumbent’s incendiary remarks on white supremacy and his baseless claims of electoral fraud, with GOP officials privately expressing alarm about the fallout with key voters as the president’s allies argued that he electrified his core supporters.

Biden, who launched a train tour through the battlegrounds of Ohio and Pennsylvania, continued to pitch himself as a champion of working-class voters and saw Democrats rally around what they view as Trump’s threat to American democracy.

But few Republicans voiced outrage in the wake of Trump’s norm-shattering spectacle in Cleveland on Tuesday, including his statement that the extremist Proud Boys, a male-only far-right group known for street violence, should “stand back and stand by.” Responses ranged from silence to muted criticism, reflecting how the GOP remains convinced that an alliance with Trump and his voters is crucial for its survival.

But hewing too close to him is also seen as a mistake by some Republicans, particularly for those who wish to court moderates and independent voters.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Federal judge refuses to stop mail-in voting in Montana, blasts Trump-backed ‘fiction’ of massive voter fraud”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116077>
Posted on October 1, 2020 11:09 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116077> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CNN:<https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/30/politics/montana-vote-by-mail-ruling-trump-campaign-lawsuit/index.html>

A federal judge in Montana rejected the Trump campaign’s effort <http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2020/images/09/30/montana.ruling.pdf> to stop an expansion of mail-in voting in the state.

The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee filed the lawsuit <https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/02/politics/trump-rnc-montana-mail-in-voting-sue/index.html> earlier this month after Democratic Montana Gov. Steve Bullock issued a directive allowing all counties in the state to switch to an essentially all-mail system for the 2020 election. But District Judge Dana Christensen ruled against Trump’s campaign on Wednesday and rejected its request to block the new voting rules.

In his ruling, the judge blasted the Trump-backed “fiction” that there is widespread voter fraud in US elections.
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Posted in absentee ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>, fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


Brendan Nyhan with the Question of the Day<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116075>
Posted on October 1, 2020 11:01 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116075> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Brendan<https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/09/30/trump-debate-neutral-press-media-criticism/?utm_campaign=wp_opinions&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter> in WaPo:

The question now is whether the media will learn anything from the debate experience. Will they accurately describe Trump’s attacks on the election as dangerous and anti-democratic? Or will they run faux-neutral headlines like “Pure chaos on election night” if he says the vote is being stolen and tries to declare victory before all the votes are counted? The stakes could not be higher.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


Texas Governor Abbott Reverses Course, Will Make It Harder to Drop Off Mail Ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116073>
Posted on October 1, 2020 10:58 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116073> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Chuck Lindell<https://twitter.com/chucklindell/status/1311718569189806089> thread starts here:
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“A new low for US presidential debates and election integrity”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116070>
Posted on October 1, 2020 10:53 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116070> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

I talked<https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/to-the-point/candidates-election-2020-presidential-debate> to Warren Olney for KCRW’s “To the Point.”
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


5th Circuit Unsurprisingly Stops District Court Order That Would Have Reimposed Straight Ticket Voting in November’s Election in Texas<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116067>
Posted on October 1, 2020 10:37 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116067> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Here’s the order<http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/20/20-40643-CV0.pdf>.

When the district court issued its order I was quite surprised<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115766> there was no focus on trying to implement this so close to the election. As the appeals court wrote: “Finally, given that thousands of ballots without straight-ticket voting have already been mailed in accordance with a law that was passed three years ago and the immense difficulty described by the Secretary of managing an election with different sets of ballots for in-person and mail-in voting, the public interest weighs heavily in favor of issuing the stay.”
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


I Spoke to CNN’s John King About Trump Claims of Election Fraud and Related Litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116065>
Posted on October 1, 2020 10:32 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116065> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

You can watch here<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E4o2ASLmes&feature=youtu.be>:
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


“When Your Job Is to Make Sure Nov. 3 Isn’t a Disaster”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116063>
Posted on October 1, 2020 10:25 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116063> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/01/us/voting-election.html>

President Trump<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/elections/donald-trump.html>’s proclamations at Tuesday’s debate that there was no way the presidential election could be conducted without fraud, as well as frequent tweets along those lines, aren’t helping.

“I have never been so upset about a sitting president attempting to undermine our elections in this way,” said Denise Merrill, the Connecticut secretary of state and a Democrat, who spent Wednesday morning replaying Mr. Trump’s remarks from the debate stage out of disbelief. “What he’s really doing is impugning the work of thousands of elections officials across the country — all those people in the towns and counties busy trying to maintain faith in the elections process.”

In search of solidarity, some secretaries of state, across party lines, have joined a group text where they share tips to help one another overcome election kinks.

“There are a lot of OMGs,” Ms. Merrill said.

None of the officials want to be known as the 2020 version of Katherine Harris, who as Florida’s Republican secretary of state unexpectedly gained the attention of an anxious nation awaiting a winner in the 2000 election and became the butt of “Saturday Night Live” jokes<https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/hardball-decision-2000/2861375>.

In the current climate, many officials are reaching for Boy Scout-like earnestness.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“Facebook tightens political ad bans as US election nears”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116061>
Posted on October 1, 2020 10:23 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116061> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP:<https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-joe-biden-donald-trump-voting-fraud-and-irregularities-media-b8b808a0f6652cf455bea3aa7870a1c2>

With just over a month to go before Americans head en masse to the polls in an extraordinarily contentious election, Facebook is expanding restrictions on political advertising, including new bans on messages claiming widespread voter fraud.

New prohibitions laid out in a blog post<https://www.facebook.com/business/help/253606115684173> come days after President Donald Trump raised the prospect of mass fraud in the vote-by-mail process during a debate with Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Banned ads “would include calling a method of voting inherently fraudulent or corrupt, or using isolated incidents of voter fraud to delegitimize the result of an election,” Rob Leathern, Facebook’s director of product management, tweeted<https://twitter.com/robleathern/status/1311431581920305153>. The changes apply to Facebook and Instagram and are effective immediately, he said.

The ban includes ads that call an election into question because the result isn’t determined on the final day of voting. There is a good chance U.S. election results will require additional time this year because of expanded mail-in ballots due to the pandemic.

Also banned are advertisements portraying voting or census participation as meaningless and advising people not to take part.
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Posted in cheap speech<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=130>, fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


“Court reopens door to ‘dark money’ in Arizona political races”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116059>
Posted on October 1, 2020 10:05 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116059> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Tuscon.com<https://tucson.com/news/local/court-reopens-door-to-dark-money-in-arizona-political-races/article_89a3773d-f533-5e6c-ba56-f5375baa2016.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share>:

The Arizona Court of Appeals has reinstated a 2017 law that opens the door to “dark money” contributions to political races.

The judges said Tuesday that the Republican-controlled Legislature was within its rights to decide that any group the Internal Revenue Service classified as nonprofit does not have to disclose its donors, even if it uses the money to finance independent expenditures to elect or defeat candidates.

That legislative change overturned the ability of the voter-created Citizens Clean Elections Commission to determine whether the group was really a charity or only a thinly disguised political action committee. PACs have to disclose donors.

Tuesday’s unanimous ruling also allows political parties to spend unlimited dollars on behalf of their candidates without disclosure.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>


South Carolina Election Officials, Republican Party Go to Supreme Court Seeking to Reinstate Absentee Ballot Witness Requirement Relaxed Thanks to Covid<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116057>
Posted on October 1, 2020 10:00 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116057> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The brief<https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2020/08/SC-Stay-App.pdf> relies heavily on the Purcell Principle<https://ir.law.fsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2542&context=lr>.
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Posted in absentee ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“Voting lawsuits pile up across US as election approaches”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116055>
Posted on October 1, 2020 9:56 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116055> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP<https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/voting-lawsuits-pile-us-election-approaches-73346407>:

They’ve been fighting in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania over the cutoff date for counting mailed ballots, and in North Carolina over witness requirements. Ohio is grappling with drop boxes for ballots as Texas faces a court challenge over extra days of early voting.

Measuring the anxiety over the November election<https://abcnews.go.com/alerts/Elections> is as simple as tallying the hundreds of voting-related lawsuits filed across the country in recent months. The cases concern the fundamentals of the American voting process, including how ballots are cast and counted, during an election<https://abcnews.go.com/alerts/Elections> made unique by the coronavirus pandemic and by a president who refuses to commit to accepting the results.
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Exclusive: Russian operation masqueraded as right-wing news site to target U.S. voters – sources”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116053>
Posted on October 1, 2020 8:08 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116053> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Reuters:<reuters:>

The Russian group accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. election has posed as an independent news outlet to target right-wing social media users ahead of this year’s vote, two people familiar with an FBI probe into the activity told Reuters.

The latest operation centred around a pseudo media organisation called the Newsroom for American and European Based Citizens (NAEBC), which was run by people associated with the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, the sources said.

U.S. prosecutors say the agency played a key role in Russian efforts to sway the 2016 election in favour of President Donald Trump, and Facebook and Twitter exposed a fake left-wing media outlet in September which they said was run by people connected to the organisation.

NAEBC and its activity, which have not been previously reported, now show that Russian attempts to influence U.S. voters ahead of the 2020 election have targeted both sides of the political divide.

The website predominantly focused on U.S. politics and current events, republishing articles from conservative media and paying real Americans to write about politically-sensitive issues. A network of accounts posing as editors and journalists then promoted the articles on social media sites favoured by right-wing users.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Why there could be voter intimidation at the polls on Election Day”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116036>
Posted on September 30, 2020 5:37 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116036> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

I spoke with Madeline Brand on KCRW’s Press Play.<https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/election-2020-aviation-economy/consent-decree-voter-intimidation>
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“Uncivil War”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116034>
Posted on September 30, 2020 5:34 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116034> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Announcement:

In the lead-up to the 2020 election, Uncivil War, a new documentary from the Bertelsmann Foundation, explores three factors eroding the US electoral system: gerrymandering, voter suppression, and disinformation. The film unravels a web of threats to American elections, separates truth from fiction, and exposes a hidden war against democracy itself.

The US Premiere of Uncivil War will be free and online, October 8, 6:30-9:15pm ET.  You can register here<https://watch.eventive.org/uncivilwar/play/5f722883e4ef79013b4c6fef>.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Trump Renews Fears of Voter Intimidation as G.O.P. Poll Watchers Mobilize”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116032>
Posted on September 30, 2020 5:33 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116032> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/us/trump-election-poll-watchers.html>:

The group of Trump campaign officials came carrying cellphone cameras and a determination to help the president’s re-election efforts in Philadelphia. But they were asked to leave the city’s newly opened satellite election offices on Tuesday after being told local election laws did not permit them to monitor voters coming to request and complete absentee ballots.

On social media, right-wing news sites<https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/09/trump-observers-blocked-entry-satellite-voting-locations-philly-stopthesteal/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=PostTopSharingButtons&utm_campaign=websitesharingbuttons> and in the presidential debate<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/us/politics/debate-takeaways.html> on Tuesday night, President Trump<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/elections/donald-trump.html> and his campaign quickly suggested nefarious intent<https://twitter.com/mikeroman/status/1310996066494484480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1310996066494484480%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2020%2F09%2Ftrump-observers-blocked-entry-satellite-voting-locations-philly-stopthesteal%2F> in the actions of local election officials, with the president claiming during the debate that “bad things happen in Philadelphia” and urging his supporters everywhere to “go into the polls and watch very carefully.”

The dark and baseless descriptions of the voting process in Philadelphia were the latest broad-brush attempt by the Trump campaign to undermine confidence in this year’s election, a message delivered with an ominous edge at the debate when he advised an extremist group, the Proud Boys, to “stand back and stand by” in his remarks about the election.

The sinister insinuations and calls for his followers to monitor voting activity are clear. What’s less apparent is how the Trump campaign wants this to play out….

The Republican establishment has ample reason to want to avoid accusations of voter intimidation. In the early 1980s, after the party sent hired workers sporting armbands reading “National Ballot Security Task Force” into Black and Latino precincts in New Jersey to challenge voters’ eligibility, it operated under an increasingly strict federal consent decree that eventually barred it from conducting or advising on any sort of “ballot security” activities — even by unpaid volunteers.

Richard L. Hasen, an election-law expert at the University of California, Irvine, said that because of the president’s influence, the Republican National Committee was at risk of being associated with the same kind of behavior that led to the consent decree. He noted that the 2017 federal court ruling lifting the consent decree stated in a footnote that Mr. Trump had clearly encouraged voter suppression during the 2016 presidential campaign, but that his behavior could not be tied to the national party.

Now, however, he effectively controls the party.

“While I was worried about Trump norm-breaking in 2016, it is far worse for a sitting president to be undermining the integrity of the election,” Dr. Hasen said. “Whether Trump means the things he says or not, he’s convincing his most ardent supporters that the only way he loses is if the Democrats cheat.”

He added, “That’s profoundly destabilizing and scary.”
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


“Memory sticks used to program Philly’s voting machines were stolen from elections warehouse”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116030>
Posted on September 30, 2020 5:29 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116030> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Philly Inquirer:<https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/philadelphia-election-trump-equipment-stolen-usb-laptop-20200930.html?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar>

A laptop and several memory sticks used to program Philadelphia’s voting machines were stolen from a city warehouse in East Falls, officials confirmed Wednesday, setting off a scramble to investigate and to ensure the machines had not been compromised.

Though it remains unclear when exactly equipment was stolen, sources briefed on the investigation said it vanished this week. The laptop and USB drives — the only items believed to have been taken — belonged to an on-site employee for the company that supplies the machines.

City officials vowed Wednesday that the theft would not disrupt voting on Nov. 3.

“We are confident,” said Nick Custodio, a deputy to Lisa Deeley, chair of the city commissioners, who oversee elections, “that this incident will not in any way compromise the integrity of the election.”

But behind the scenes, they fretted about how President Donald Trump and his allies might use the news to cast doubt on the integrity of the city’s elections in light of false claims and conspiracy theories he cited during Tuesday’s presidential debate.

The commissioners initially refused to confirm the theft or that an investigation had been opened. They only did so after The Inquirer informed them it would be reporting the incident based on sources who were not authorized to publicly discuss it.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voting technology<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>


“Republicans Are Slowing Down Mailed-In Vote Counts in Key Swing States”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116028>
Posted on September 30, 2020 5:23 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116028> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Washington Monthly<https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/09/30/republicans-are-slowing-down-the-counting-of-mailed-in-votes-in-key-swing-states/>:

The bad news is that Republican officials in three swing states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, are blocking legislation that could allow for the early processing of absentee ballots—purposefully making it take longer to get the election results. In other words, they are engineering the absentee vote counting delays that Trump is already planning to complain about and sue over.

In each of these states, current law allows<https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-16-when-absentee-mail-ballot-processing-and-counting-can-begin.aspx> absentee vote processing to begin either on or after Election Day. Over the last several months, county clerks and advocates have pushed for that period to be extended, all to enable elections officials to begin processing the votes more quickly, so there is less of a delay in announcing the outcome to the public. But in each of those states, such bills have been <https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/06/pa-lawmakers-review-legislation-to-allow-counting-of-mail-in-ballots-before-election-day.html> blocked<https://www.wpr.org/proposal-would-allow-electronic-early-voting-wisconsin> by Republican leadership in the state houses. All of those states have a Democratic governor and a Democratic secretary of state pushing for such bills, but Republicans control the legislatures. In Pennsylvania, legislation was introduced<https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/06/pa-lawmakers-review-legislation-to-allow-counting-of-mail-in-ballots-before-election-day.html> in June to begin processing and counting ballots early, but it went nowhere. In Wisconsin, Democrats introduced<https://www.wpr.org/proposal-would-allow-electronic-early-voting-wisconsin> a bill in May to begin processing ballots early, but not tabulate them until after the polls closed. That, too, faced GOP resistance.

In Michigan, there has been slightly more progress. After months of advocacy by county clerks, including Republicans, to give elections officials the ability to get a head start on processing absentee ballots, the Michigan state house passed<https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2020/09/bill-letting-michigan-clerks-process-absentee-ballots-a-day-early-headed-to-governor.html> a bill last week after sitting on it for months to extend early absentee vote processing—by just one day. That’s better than nothing, but it’s hardly enough time to meet the needs of elections officials.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told me it only gives elections officials 10 hours to start processing ballots on Election Day, which includes additional administrative work. Some clerks have estimated that they would only net three hours that day for processing ballots.
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Posted in absentee ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>


--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
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http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>


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