[EL] ELB News and Commentary 10/22/20

[Rick Hasen]

“Md. elections officials say video’s allegation of ballot fraud is untrue. But it’s already gone viral.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=117242>
Posted on October 21, 2020 9:14 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=117242> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/ballot-fraud-denied-montgomery-county/2020/10/21/aee4de64-13dd-11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html>:

Elections officials in Maryland’s most populous jurisdiction held an emergency meeting Wednesday to discuss a viral video alleging that an election worker attempted to tamper with a mailed-in ballot.

A thorough investigation revealed no evidence of fraud or misconduct, Montgomery County officials said, but they’re concerned that the video may have spread some damaging misinformation.

“Something like this just feeds into people who believe mail-in voting is fraudulent,” said the county’s elections board chair, Jim Shalleck, a Republican appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan (R). “It’s very unfortunate.”

Elections officials in the liberal suburb of 1 million were alerted Tuesday afternoon to the video, which was posted on YouTube by a user who says they took it off 4chan<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/09/25/absolutely-everything-you-need-to-know-to-understand-4chan-the-internets-own-bogeyman/?itid=lk_inline_manual_6>, an online message board often used by provocative trolls.

The six-minute video, which had been viewed more than 80,000 times as of 6 p.m. Wednesday, starts with a brief clip taken from Yahoo Finance’s Facebook live feed of the county’s ongoing canvass of mailed ballots <https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-maryland-dc-election-results-expected/2020/10/16/9857613c-0ca6-11eb-8a35-237ef1eb2ef7_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_9> at Plum Gar Community Recreation Center in Germantown.

The clip shows a male election worker sorting through ballots; he briefly looks around the room before picking up a pen and leaning over the ballot. In bold text, the video suggests that the worker is committing election fraud.

“All this looks very, very suspicious,” the unnamed narrator says.

“It’s not Republicans or conservatives that do this sort of thing,” the narrator says later in the video, urging viewers to share the video “far and wide.”

An email sent to the address linked to the account that posted the video was not answered Wednesday evening. The Washington Post is not linking to the video because it was unable to confirm the poster’s identity or verify the claims.

Kevin Karpinski, counsel for Montgomery County’s elections board, told board members on Wednesday the allegation of misconduct is unfounded. Karpinski said he interviewed the canvass worker shown in the clip, spoke to other volunteers who were working at the time and reviewed every ballot that the worker had helped to sort.

“I find no evidence whatsoever, any sort of attempt of voter fraud,” he said.

In actuality, Karpinski said, what the clip captured was the canvass worker darkening an oval that had been filled in too lightly, to ensure that it would be picked up by the ballot scanners. Karpinski said that protocol has been in place for election workers since he started working for the elections board in 2003 and is designed to ensure that as many eligible ballots as possible are counted.
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Posted in cheap speech<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=130>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“‘A Litigation Arms Race.’ Why The 2020 Election Could Come Down To The Courts”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=117240>
Posted on October 21, 2020 9:10 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=117240> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Alana Abramson <https://time.com/5902389/election-2020-lawsuits-litigation/> for Time.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


Why Have Some People Worked So Hard to Make It Easier for People To Vote During the Pandemic?<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=117238>
Posted on October 21, 2020 9:04 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=117238> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

My thread starts here<https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1319122068932161537?s=20>:
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Cash-rich, Uber-backed Prop. 22 campaign scrimps on postage”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=117236>
Posted on October 21, 2020 8:48 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=117236> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

SF Chronicle:<https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Cash-rich-Uber-backed-Prop-22-campaign-scrimps-15664758.php>

Proposition 22, the ballot measure to exempt Uber and Lyft drivers and other gig workers from being employees, got a nonprofit postal permit for its deluge of glossy mailers, allowing it to save millions on postage. U.S. Postal Service regulations specifically say that political organizations other than political parties are not eligible. Yes on 22’s lawyers said the campaign is legitimately entitled to its nonprofit mailing status and is not a “political organization” as that regulation defines it.

“This misuse of the nonprofit permit coming from a corporate backed $200 million campaign is unprecedented and should be remedied by the Postal Service immediately,” attorneys for the No on 22 campaign, which is backed by organized labor, wrote to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Wednesday.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Travis Crum: The fatal flaw that should undo Amendment 3”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=117234>
Posted on October 21, 2020 8:46 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=117234> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

St. Louis Post-Dispatch oped<https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/columnists/travis-crum-the-fatal-flaw-that-should-undo-amendment-3/article_267d9e35-ac61-554d-ab09-85a9588436de.html>:

The 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause mandates that state legislative districts have substantially equal populations. And today, every state uses total population as the baseline for drawing their legislative districts.

Supporters of Amendment 3 on the Nov. 3 Missouri ballot seek to change that. They claim Amendment 3 authorizes redistricting based on citizen voting-age population rather than total population. In other words, districts would be drawn to have an equal number of voters, without regard to children and foreigners. The practical effect in Missouri would be to exclude more than 50% of Hispanics and Asians but only 21% of whites and 28% of Blacks from the redistricting process. A recent study by the Brennan Center for Justice found that this would skew political power to whiter and more rural areas, particularly hurting the St. Louis suburbs and the Kansas City metro region.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Court ruling could block thousands of Iowa ballot requests”; 4-3 State Supreme Court Ruling<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=117232>
Posted on October 21, 2020 8:44 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=117232> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP<https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2020/10/21/court-ruling-block-thousands-iowa-ballot-requests/114460276/>:

A split Iowa Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a new Republican-backed law that could bar county elections commissioners from mailing absentee ballots to thousands of people who omitted information on their applications.

The 4-3 ruling means that voters who want to cast mail-in ballots in the Nov. 3 election must complete their absentee ballot applications before Saturday’s deadline in order to qualify.

Auditors will not be allowed to use the state’s voter registration system to fix any deficient applications, as they have done in prior elections. Voters must do so themselves.
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Posted in absentee ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>


Florida: “Armed guards at St. Pete early voting site told deputies they were hired by Trump campaign, election officials say”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=117230>
Posted on October 21, 2020 8:37 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=117230> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WFLA<https://www.wfla.com/news/pinellas-county/armed-guards-at-st-pete-early-voting-site-told-deputies-they-were-hired-by-trump-campaign-election-officials-say/>:

Two armed guards set up in a tent outside an early voting location in downtown St. Petersburg claiming to be with the Trump campaign, according to Julie Marcus, the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections.

“The Sheriff [Bob Gualtieri] told me the persons that were dressed in these security uniforms had indicated to sheriff’s deputies that they belonged to a licensed security company and they indicated, and this has not been confirmed yet, that they were hired by the Trump campaign,” said Marcus in a video interview with 8 On Your Side’s Chip Osowski Wednesday night.

8 On Your Side has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment and is awaiting a response.

Marcus, a Republican, is running to keep her seat as supervisor after being appointed in May by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Gualtieri, also a Republican, is running for re-election as well.

“The sheriff and I take this very seriously,” Marcus said. “Voter intimidation, deterring voters from voting, impeding a voter’s ability to cast a ballot in this election is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in any way shape, or form. So we anticipated many things going into this election. Not only cybersecurity, but physical security and we had a plan in place and executed that plan.”
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


--
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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