[EL] Breaking: Key Pa. Supreme Court ruling (another one!); my oped on AG Barr and the election

Thu Sep 17 10:45:54 PDT 2020

Breaking: Pennsylvania Supreme Court Extends Absentee Ballot Receipt Deadlines, Allows Drop Boxes, Limits Poll Watchers from Other PA Counties. What’s Next?<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115348>
Posted on September 17, 2020 10:44 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115348> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Jonathan Lai<https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pennsylvania-mail-ballot-deadlines-state-supreme-court-ruling-20200917.html> for the Philly Inquirer:

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court extended the state’s mail ballot deadlines on Thursday, a move that could allow tens of thousands of additional votes to be counted — and will likely draw criticism from Republicans who have argued that all votes should be received by Election Day.

State law says mail ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day, but the high court said Thursday that ballots will be counted if they are received by 5 p.m. the Friday after the Nov. 3 election. To count, ballots arriving after Election Day must either be postmarked by Nov. 3 or have no proof they were sent afterward. Ballots that arrive by the new deadline with missing or illegible postmarks would still be counted.

In addition, the court held that state election law allows counties to use drop boxes for hand delivery of mail ballots; denied requests from President Donald Trump’s campaign and others to allow poll watchers to work in counties other than the ones where they are registered; and denied a request that other people be allowed to deliver voters’ ballots.

Majority opinion<http://www.pacourts.us/assets/opinions/Supreme/out/J-96-2020mo%20-%20104548450113066639.pdf?cb=1>

Concurring opinion<http://www.pacourts.us/assets/opinions/Supreme/out/J-96-2020co%20-%20104548450113066706.pdf?cb=1>

Concurring and dissenting opinion<http://www.pacourts.us/assets/opinions/Supreme/out/J-96-2020cdo%20-%20104548450113066751.pdf?cb=1>

Concurring and dissenting opinion<http://www.pacourts.us/assets/opinions/Supreme/out/J-96-2020cdo1%20-%20104548450113066808.pdf?cb=1>

This is litigation I’ve been following for a while, as it is among the most significant in battleground states.

This could lead to a Trump appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, or, more likely, an attempt to revive federal constitutional issues in the case where the federal judge had initially abstained <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=114372> from deciding issues pending the state resolution of related issues.
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“Barr’s undermining of the election is downright dangerous”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115346>
Posted on September 17, 2020 10:25 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115346> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

I have written this oped<https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/17/opinions/us-election-2020-william-barr-undermining-hasen/index.html> for CNN. It begins:

By repeating false<https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/29/politics/barr-voter-fraud-fact-check-foreign-countries/index.html> and misleading<https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/11/politics/barr-secret-vote-fact-check/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_allpolitics+%28RSS%3A+CNN+-+Politics%29> statements about the potential for voter fraud and post-election violence, Attorney General William Barr has stepped out of his role as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer and marred the 2020 elections. This parroting of President Donald Trump’s unsupported rhetoric is irresponsible and dangerous, turning the job of the Department of Justice as the protector of voting rights on its head.

This sowing of doubt in the integrity of our elections could be even worse than Barr’s other recent comments<https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/16/politics/barr-justice-department-speech/index.html> comparing prosecutors to children, equating Covid-19 health restrictions to slavery and suggesting that some political protesters should be charged<https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/16/politics/barr-sedition/index.html> with “sedition.”

It is perhaps too much to expect the attorney general of the United States to condemn Trump’s repeated<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.washingtonpost.com_opinions_2020_09_15_trump-2Djust-2Drepeated-2Dhis-2Dugliest-2Dclaim-2Dabout-2Delection-2Dwhy-2Disnt-2Dit-2Dbigger-2Dnews_&d=DwMGaQ&c=tq9bLrSQ8zIr87VusnUS9yAL0Jw_xnDiPuZjNR4EDIQ&r=gUdX-8KDBIsgcOtDiOaBvRJ12J2CaIbJ9ZLcvI5dD5g&m=SrM0NFb6VFBJGSoVfevSkB_5UxJ0AwLLe4fS3K0LQkc&s=4MibV45D_05ziouVnpcAl591yFiTIZ9KanCs03xp3GY&e=> and unsupported comments<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__twitter.com_MattGertz_status_1305845345910431746&d=DwMGaQ&c=tq9bLrSQ8zIr87VusnUS9yAL0Jw_xnDiPuZjNR4EDIQ&r=gUdX-8KDBIsgcOtDiOaBvRJ12J2CaIbJ9ZLcvI5dD5g&m=SrM0NFb6VFBJGSoVfevSkB_5UxJ0AwLLe4fS3K0LQkc&s=e-HzucmKwTYFOR49u5topkkKG_KngTfIrYhXDKMdBfY&e=> that the only way he can lose the upcoming election against his opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, is if the election is “rigged.” A responsible attorney general, who would put the interests of the country over that of the president or party, would surely come out and say that Trump’s remarks cross a line.The remarks have inspired people such as Roger Stone (a Trump ally whose crimes including lying to Congress and whose sentence Trump recently commuted<https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/10/politics/trump-stone-prison-clemency/index.html>) to say that the President should declare martial law, seize ballots in Nevada and do whatever it takes to stay in power following the election.

But Barr has said <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.chicagotribune.com_columns_john-2Dkass_ct-2Dattorney-2Dgeneral-2Dwilliam-2Dbarr-2Dchicago-2Dkass-2D20200911-2Dxbpfeq5wj5hybffu5e7aiwuzoq-2Dstory.html&d=DwMGaQ&c=tq9bLrSQ8zIr87VusnUS9yAL0Jw_xnDiPuZjNR4EDIQ&r=gUdX-8KDBIsgcOtDiOaBvRJ12J2CaIbJ9ZLcvI5dD5g&m=SrM0NFb6VFBJGSoVfevSkB_5UxJ0AwLLe4fS3K0LQkc&s=sSRDRAOCRjj_JNjTUxMoH6NMIurbnOmIej7DTbl3WBU&e=> it is “bulls–t” and “crap” to suggest that if the President loses he would stay in office and seize power, calling it “projection” by the left aimed at “creating an incendiary situation where there will be loss of confidence in the vote.”

If anyone is causing people to lose confidence in the fairness of the vote, it is Barr himself.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>

--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
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