[EL] more news and commentary 9/24/20
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Thu Sep 24 15:19:32 PDT 2020
Senator Rick Scott Wants to Disenfranchise Military and Other Voters Voting by Mail By Stopping Counting After 24 Hours<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115701>
Posted on September 24, 2020 3:12 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115701> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Jeremy Stahl<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/republican-senator-bill-illegal-mail-vote-count-deadline.html> for Slate:
On Thursday, Florida Sen. Rick Scott proposed a bill that would change election laws with less than six weeks to go until November’s election, causing complete mayhem and ensuring that untold number of otherwise valid votes would not be counted. Scott’s proposal is simple and entirely unworkable. His Help America Vote Act of 2020 would require that mail-in ballots be counted within 24 hours of when voting closes on election day. Scott’s proposed legislation would also prevent mail-in ballots received prior to election day from being processed and counted until the morning of Nov. 3, contradicting state election statutes<https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-16-when-absentee-mail-ballot-processing-and-counting-can-begin.aspx> across the country including one that he signed<https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1309191970011701252> when he was governor of Florida. Basically, the bill would move back the date by which votes can start to be counted and move up the date by which the count must end. This would limit the count to a single less-than 48-hour window, shortening the count in some cases by weeks. In Scott’s own home state of Florida, as one example, votes can start to be counted up to 22 days before election day. In Colorado, which does all mail-in voting, they can be processed as soon as they are received and counted 15 days before election day. Under Scott’s law, those votes would all have to begin to be counted on election day itself. Any votes that did not get counted simply would not count.
Scott, who has opposed providing funding for the administration of the election<https://www.floridadaily.com/rick-scott-tells-donald-trump-dont-let-democrats-use-coronavirus-relief-to-enact-their-liberal-agenda/> in COVID-19 relief bills, does not include in his bill any federal money that would help states meet this new deadline. Without funding to implement such an immediate revamp of election administration across the country, the deadline would be impossible to meet for most states. Further, the proposal would reject untold absentee ballots cast legally by election day but arriving afterwards.
“Not only is counting all the ballots in 24 hours impossible in many places, [in] lots of places ballots can arrive days after election day to count,” UC Irvine School of Law professor and occasional Slate contributor Richard Hasen told me.
Indeed, late-arriving absentee military ballots in Florida<https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/15/us/examining-the-vote-how-bush-took-florida-mining-the-overseas-absentee-vote.html> were a major point of contention during the contested presidential election of 2000, with Republicans at the time supporting the idea that late ballots be counted.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>
“How the 2000 Election Came Down to a Supreme Court Decision;As Florida’s electoral votes became too close to call, controversy ensued over hanging chads, dimpled chads and butterfly ballots.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115699>
Posted on September 24, 2020 3:05 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115699> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Timely <https://www.history.com/news/2000-election-bush-gore-votes-supreme-court> from History.com.
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Posted in Bush v. Gore reflections<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=5>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“White House touts unusual Justice Department announcement about ‘discarded’ Trump ballots in Pennsylvania”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115697>
Posted on September 24, 2020 2:54 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115697> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Marshall Cohen<https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/24/politics/doj-trump-ballots-pennsylvania/index.html> for CNN:
The Justice Department said Thursday that it is investigating “potential issues with mail-in ballots<https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/politics/mail-in-voting/>” in the swing state of Pennsylvania and, in a highly unusual disclosure, <https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdpa/pr/revised-statement-us-attorney-freed-inquiry-reports-potential-issues-mail-ballots> revealed that several ballots marked for President Donald Trump were “discarded.
“US Attorney David Freed said a preliminary inquiry determined that nine “military ballots were discarded” and that seven of them “were cast for presidential candidate Donald Trump.” The incident occurred in Luzerne County, a swing county in northeastern Pennsylvania that is home to Wilkes-Barre. Trump flipped the county in 2016 after years of narrow Democratic wins.
The statement was highly unusual because it highlighted the fact that the ballots were marked for Trump — which immediately raised suspicions that the Justice Department was trying to furnish material that Trump could promote for political gain. Indeed, Trump and other White House aides used the information, even before it was made public, to attack mail-in voting.Election officials go to extraordinary lengths to protect ballot secrecy. It’s unclear how investigators figured out who the votes were for, and why they made that information public.
Additionally, the Justice Department typically does not comment about ongoing investigations, though there are rules allowing it when there is a public interest at stake, like election integrity.The federal probe was apparently triggered by a request from Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis, a Republican who announced Tuesday that federal investigators were assisting with an election issue. Freed, also a Republican, was appointed by Trump in 2017. A spokesperson for Salavantis told CNN that the nine affected ballots are for the general election. Many military and overseas ballots were sent out last weekend.<https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/04/politics/what-matters-vote-by-mail-presidential-election-2020/index.html>
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, Department of Justice<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=26>
“Trump’s talk of rejecting election result evokes chaos scenarios”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115695>
Posted on September 24, 2020 2:48 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115695> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
LA Times<https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-09-24/if-trump-lost-and-tried-to-hold-onto-power-what-could-he-do>:
According to a report in the Atlantic, the campaign has spoken with at least one Republican leader in Pennsylvania about the possibility of citing voting irregularities to reject a Biden win there and have the state legislature direct the state’s electors to back Trump. It’s a strategy Trump could also pursue in other states.
“Unfortunately, the risk of this kind of thing happening has increased,” said Ned Foley, an election law scholar at Ohio State University who has researched how such a scenario could unfold.
The Trump campaign is not disputing the strategy is under consideration.
“If we think it’s being stolen, we’re going to fight like hell,” a senior campaign official said Thursday, while adding that Trump is not planning to try to hold on to power if he loses fairly. “I think that’s what the president was saying. But I think November could be a really bad month for this country.”
The president’s pronouncements<https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-06-22/vote-by-mail-trump-biden-facts> are worrying even some in the Pentagon, after he said earlier this year that he planned to deploy a massive show of force by law enforcement on election day, in what he described as national poll-watching effort.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“Trump And The Republicans Are Doing Everything They Can To Confuse Voters Before The Election”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115693>
Posted on September 24, 2020 12:56 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115693> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
BuzzFeed News reports.<https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/clarissajanlim/trump-republicans-confuse-voters?ref=bfnsplash>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
Justin Levitt (Who Was a Voting Official at DOJ) on the Bizarre DOJ Press Release on an Investigation Into 9 Potentially Mishandled Ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115691>
Posted on September 24, 2020 12:48 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115691> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Thread starts here<https://twitter.com/_justinlevitt_/status/1309209402889576448>:
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, Department of Justice<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=26>
October 5: “An election like no other: Getting Californians ready for November”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115689>
Posted on September 24, 2020 12:37 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115689> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Looking forward to doing this event <https://ucop.zoom.us/webinar/register/TW/WN_h0o9jkeoS-qUS052KoGToQ> for the UC (registration required):
The 2020 election is just over a month away! This is your chance to hear directly from the experts on what Californians need to know as they get ready to vote. UC Irvine Professor Rick Hasen (BA, UC Berkeley; MA, JD, PhD, UCLA), an election expert and CNN Election Analyst, along with James Schwab (BA, UC Davis), Chief Deputy Secretary of State (California) will share how Californians can safely exercise their right to vote. This conversation will delve into the historic nature of holding an election during a pandemic –and the opportunities and challenges that come with it –and how public officials are addressing questions related to confidence in the electoral process. Jen Tolentino (BA, UC Riverside; MPP, UCLA), Deputy Director for the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office, Innovation Team will moderate this nonpartisan discussion. Register to join live or to receive a link to the event recording.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
Now Available with Free Access: Election Law Journal: Special Section: Elections During the COVID Pandemic<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115687>
Posted on September 24, 2020 12:21 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115687> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Very glad to be a part of this <https://www.liebertpub.com/toc/elj/19/3?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_term=&utm_content=Button&utm_campaign=ELJ%20FP%20September%2024%202020%20special%20section> and kudos to editor David Canon and staff for getting this out so quickly:
VOLUME 19, ISSUE 3 / SEPTEMBER 2020
Special Section: Elections During the COVID PandemicFree
Three Pathologies of American Voting Rights Illuminated by the COVID-19 Pandemic, and How to Treat and Cure Them<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/elj.2020.0646>
· Richard L. Hasen<https://www.liebertpub.com/author/Hasen%2C+Richard+L>
· Pages:263–288
· Published Online:18 August 2020
· Abstract<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/elj.2020.0646>
· Full text<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/elj.2020.0646>
· PDF<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/elj.2020.0646>
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Voting by Mail and Ballot Rejection: Lessons from Florida for Elections in the Age of the Coronavirus<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/elj.2020.0658>
· Anna Baringer<https://www.liebertpub.com/author/Baringer%2C+Anna>,
· Michael C. Herron<https://www.liebertpub.com/author/Herron%2C+Michael+C>, and
· Daniel A. Smith<https://www.liebertpub.com/author/Smith%2C+Daniel+A>
· Pages:289–320
· Published Online:17 September 2020
· Abstract<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/elj.2020.0658>
· Full text<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/elj.2020.0658>
· PDF<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/elj.2020.0658>
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Signature Verification and Mail Ballots: Guaranteeing Access While Preserving Integrity—A Case Study of California’s Every Vote Counts Act<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/elj.2020.0648>
· William Janover<https://www.liebertpub.com/author/Janover%2C+William> and
· Tom Westphal<https://www.liebertpub.com/author/Westphal%2C+Tom>
· Pages:321–343
· Published Online:4 September 2020
· Abstract<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/elj.2020.0648>
· Full text<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/elj.2020.0648>
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When Is It Democratic to Postpone an Election? Elections During Natural Disasters, COVID-19, and Emergency Situations<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/elj.2020.0642>
· Toby S. James<https://www.liebertpub.com/author/James%2C+Toby+S> and
· Sead Alihodzic<https://www.liebertpub.com/author/Alihodzic%2C+Sead>
· Pages:344–362
· Published Online:26 August 2020
· Abstract<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/elj.2020.0642>
· Full text<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/elj.2020.0642>
· PDF<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/elj.2020.0642>
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College Student Registration and Voting in the Time of COVID-19<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/elj.2020.0664>
· Michael J. Hanmer<https://www.liebertpub.com/author/Hanmer%2C+Michael+J>,
· Richard G. Niemi<https://www.liebertpub.com/author/Niemi%2C+Richard+G>, and
· Thomas H. Jackson<https://www.liebertpub.com/author/Jackson%2C+Thomas+H>
· Pages:363–373
· Published Online:27 August 2020
· Abstract<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/elj.2020.0664>
· Full text<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/elj.2020.0664>
· PDF<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/elj.2020.0664>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“Election Security and Transparency in 2020”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115685>
Posted on September 24, 2020 11:57 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115685> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Andrew Appel lecture<https://mediacentral.princeton.edu/media/t/1_e9bodcmf>.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“‘Something’s in the water’: Florida Republicans see surge in voter registration”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115683>
Posted on September 24, 2020 9:53 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115683> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Politico:<https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/24/florida-republicans-voter-registration-surge-420936>
Republicans have closed the traditional voter registration gap with Democrats to an historically small margin in Florida, triggering a wave of Democratic apprehension in the nation’s biggest swing state.
Top Florida Democrats and longtime activists have increasingly groused in private that they feel pressure from Joe Biden’s campaign to refrain from door-to-door canvassing or holding voter registration drives due to the potential spread of the coronavirus and fears of muddying his messaging on the pandemic.
In the absence of such efforts, a concerted drive by President Donald Trump’s Florida campaign to register voters has helped cut the state’s long-standing Democratic advantage to fewer than 185,000 voters, a gap of just 1.3 percentage points, according to data from the Florida Division of Elections released this week.
“It’s late in the game now,” said state Sen. Jason Pizzo, a Miami Democrat. “There’s been no pushback from us, meaning that for every 100 doors that Republicans have proverbially knocked on, it’s not like they pissed people off to the point where they’ve run to the Democratic Party because they’re pissed at the GOP. It’s shown to be effective.”
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Posted in voter registration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=37>
Good News: “Republican Leaders Reject Trump Hedging On Transfer Of Power”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115680>
Posted on September 24, 2020 9:29 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115680> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NPR reports<https://www.npr.org/2020/09/24/916440816/republican-leaders-reject-trump-hedging-on-transfer-of-power-amid-war-over-confi> on these mostly positive developments:
“I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster,” Trump said, once again pushing his unsubstantiated claims <https://www.npr.org/2020/08/26/906262573/theres-no-evidence-supporting-trump-s-mail-ballot-warnings-fbi-says> about mail-in ballot fraud.
Shortly after his remarks, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, tweeted<https://twitter.com/MittRomney/status/1308932877229477890> his vehement disapproval: “Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus. Any suggestion that a president might not respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable.”
Other top Republicans followed suit Thursday morning. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., wrote<https://twitter.com/senatemajldr/status/1309126971058794499>: “There will be an orderly transition just as there has been every four years since 1792.”
The third-ranking House Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., also shared her rejection of Trump’s remarks<https://twitter.com/Liz_Cheney/status/1309103227472936961>, writing, “The peaceful transfer of power is enshrined in our Constitution and fundamental to the survival of our Republic. America’s leaders swear an oath to the Constitution. We will uphold that oath.”
Also pushing back was Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeting<https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1309096756181954561>, “As we have done for over two centuries we will have a legitimate & fair election.”
While more Republicans joined their colleagues in emphasizing even a Trump loss would involve an orderly transfer of power to the new administration, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California downplayed the president’s statement and pointed to comments last month from former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who suggested Biden not concede<https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/25/hillary-clinton-joe-biden-election-advice-401641> the election if it’s close.
McCarthy said he believes Trump will win reelection and there will be “a smooth transition” to a second term, telling reporters: “I know this will keep you up at night, but don’t worry about it.”
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Posted in Election Meltdown<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=127>
Knight Foundation: What’s Next for Tech and Democracy?<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115678>
Posted on September 24, 2020 9:20 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115678> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Happy to participate in this roundtable<https://knightfoundation.org/articles/whats-next-for-tech-and-democracy/> (Disclosure: Knight is generously supporting my book leave):
Midway through a year rocked by a pandemic, protests and politics, we asked leading researchers and policy thinkers: What new questions relating to technology’s impact on democracy have emerged or are emerging during this period? In light of these new questions, what are your predictions for the rest of 2020?
The responses we received over the summer were far-ranging, but they all underscore how significantly technology, especially social media, is shaping our understanding of this moment.
The scholars are all members of the Knight Research Network<https://knightfoundation.org/democracy-in-the-digital-age/>, a growing group of research centers, universities and independent policy organizations supported by Knight Foundation. The effort is part of a $50 million investment in new research to foster an informed public dialogue about the ways digital technology is changing our democracy.
Their responses appear below, loosely organized by theme: The big picture, the 2020 election, the techlash, content moderation and free expression online, competition and antitrust, technology and inequality, and some final thoughts.
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Posted in cheap speech<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=130>
“Republicans sue Texas governor over expanded early voting”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115675>
Posted on September 24, 2020 9:03 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115675> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
AP:<https://www.yahoo.com/news/republicans-sue-texas-governor-over-203400535.html>
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who has refused calls to expand mail-in voting in Texas during the coronavirus pandemic, was sued Wednesday by prominent members of his own party who now want to halt the biggest change he instead ordered for November’s election — extending early voting by a week.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>
Very Disappointing to See Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s Office Coordinating Policy on Voting with Noted Vote Suppressor Hans von Spakovsky<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115673>
Posted on September 24, 2020 8:46 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115673> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
In the past I’ve found Secretary Frank LaRose of Ohio to be interested in bipartisan and commonsense approaches to election administration. He was one of the two keynotes (along with Michigan SOS Jocelyn Benson) at our February conference, “Can American Democracy Survive the 2020 Elections?” Here’s the video <https://youtu.be/IDM7mUZOGmw> of that event. (Some participants, but not the Secretaries, later drafted the Fair Elections During a Crisis<https://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/2020ElectionReport.pdf> report).
But lately I’ve been disappointed with the Secretary’s resistance to a court order allowing drop boxes for the return of absentee ballots, and now comes this much more troubling news from ProPublica<https://www.propublica.org/article/before-limiting-ballot-drop-boxes-to-one-per-county-top-ohio-election-officials-secretly-consulted-promoter-of-debunked-voting-fraud-fears>:
On July 15, a civil rights group formed by Black union workers called on the Ohio secretary of state to make voting amid the pandemic easier and safer. It advocated placing multiple secure ballot drop boxes in counties across the state.
When a deputy to Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose received the A. Philip Randolph Institute’s press release<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7215329-APRI-Press-Release-7-15-20202-002.html>, he responded quickly — but not to the group. Instead, according to records obtained by ProPublica, the deputy contacted the Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky, a leading advocate for the discredited argument that American elections are tainted by widespread voting fraud.
“I just left a voicemail at your office, but wanted to follow up via email as well,” wrote<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7215331-REMINDER-Election-Administration-Forum.html> Grant Shaffer, the deputy assistant secretary of state. “If you have a few minutes, I’d love to discuss the attached press release.”
That was the second email Shaffer sent von Spakovsky’s office that day. Earlier, he had RSVP’d to an Aug. 4 virtual briefing hosted by the conservative activist. Secretaries of state are responsible for overseeing elections, and during the pandemic von Spakovsky has organized at least two remote, off-the-record strategy sessions exclusively for Republican secretaries and their staffs to discuss voting security amid what will be one of the most contested and unusual elections in generations, ProPublica reported<https://www.propublica.org/article/no-democrats-allowed-a-conservative-lawyer-holds-secret-voter-fraud-meetings-with-state-election-officials> last week.
“I’ll be happy to attend this briefing,” Shaffer wrote<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7215332-RSVP-to-Secretaries-of-State-Briefing.html> to von Spakovsky’s assistant. “The Secretary can attend for part of the time, and our scheduler will be following up with you shortly on that topic. Is there anything we can help out with or be prepared to present?”
It is not known what Shaffer and von Spakovsky specifically said over the phone about the drop box request, or if the call took place. But on Aug. 12, a week after the virtual briefing, and a month after Shaffer sought von Spakovksy’s counsel, LaRose issued<https://www.ohiosos.gov/globalassets/elections/directives/2020/dir2020-16.pdf> a directive prohibiting each of Ohio’s 88 counties from installing more than one drop box within its borders.
The secretary’s office, meanwhile, never responded to the A. Philip Randolph Institute, according to the group’s lawyer, David Carey, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. He said he was “baffled” that LaRose’s deputy would reach out to von Spakovsky and not his client. “If the secretary is turning the voting systems in Ohio into a partisan endeavor, that is a matter of extremely grave concern,” he said.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>
“Foreign Hackers Cripple Texas County’s Email System, Raising Election Security Concerns”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115671>
Posted on September 24, 2020 8:36 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115671> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
ProPublica:<https://www.propublica.org/article/foreign-hackers-cripple-texas-countys-email-system-raising-election-security-concerns?utm_source=comms_outreach&?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=comms>
The previously unreported attack on Hamilton illustrates an overlooked security weakness that could hamper the November election: the vulnerability of email systems in county offices that handle the voting process from registration to casting and counting ballots. Although experts have repeatedly warned state and local officials to follow best practices for computer security, numerous smaller locales like Hamilton appear to have taken few precautionary measures.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials have helped local governments in recent years to bolster their infrastructure, following Russian hacking attempts during the last presidential election. But desktop computers used each day in small rural counties to send routine emails, compose official documents or analyze spreadsheets can be easier targets, in part because those jurisdictions may not have the resources or know-how to update systems or afford security professionals familiar with the latest practices.
A ProPublica review of municipal government email systems in swing states found that dozens of them relied on homebrew setups or didn’t follow industry standards. Those protocols include encryption to ensure email passwords are secure and measures that confirm that people sending emails are who they purport to be. At least a dozen counties in battleground states didn’t use cloud-hosted email from firms like Google or Microsoft. While not a cure-all, such services improve protections against email hacks.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>
Call for Papers<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115669>
Posted on September 24, 2020 8:34 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115669> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Call for Papers
University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review is pleased to announce a call for papers for its 2021 Symposium, Voting and Elections, to be held on February 18 & 19, 2021.
2020 is a significant year for the discussion of voting and elections. This year marked the anniversaries of the ratification of the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments, granting minority and women suffrage. 2020 is an election year and census year. Further, in Chiafalo v. Washington, the Supreme Court of the United States held that states may enforce an elector’s pledge to support his or her party’s nominee for President. Now is the perfect time to discuss election laws and voting.
The broad goal of this symposium is to discuss significant issues in state and federal elections and solutions to those issues, with an eye toward the best solutions for Arkansas. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, modern methods of voter suppression; how to promote voter registration and turnout; useful tactics to prevent voter fraud; the role and importance of the electoral college; and states’ role in federal elections. We anticipate panels comprising a mix of academics, judges, and legislators, both Arkansas and out-of-state speakers and contributors.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review will publish articles from the symposium in an issue of volume 43 slated for release in the spring of 2021. We encourage all interested potential authors to respond. Authors should submit an abstract and a cover letter to Altimease Lowe, Symposium Editor, at allowe2 at ualr.edu<mailto:allowe2 at ualr.edu>. The deadline for submissions of article proposals is October 5, 2020; completed articles will be due Monday, November 30, 2020. Please feel free to email Ms. Lowe with any questions.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“Rule Changes In Swing States Mean More Votes Will Count, Results May Take Longer”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115666>
Posted on September 24, 2020 8:33 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115666> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Miles Parks<https://www.npr.org/2020/09/23/916012284/rule-changes-in-swing-states-mean-more-votes-will-count-results-may-take-longer> for NPR:
Last week, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court said ballots that are postmarked on or before Election Day will be counted<https://www.npr.org/2020/09/17/914160122/pennsylvania-supreme-court-extends-vote-by-mail-deadline-allows-drop-boxes> so long as they’re received within the next three days.
And a Michigan state judge last week also ruled that absentee ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 can be counted if they arrive up to two weeks after Election Day.
The developments could mean more votes will count in the states that would have otherwise been disqualified, but it also could mean a longer wait before a definitive winner is announced in the closely contested battlegrounds. An NPR analysis of absentee ballot rejections<https://www.npr.org/2020/07/13/889751095/signed-sealed-undelivered-thousands-of-mail-in-ballots-rejected-for-tardiness> during the presidential primaries this spring found that at least 65,000 ballots were rejected for arriving late.
“The broad upshot of this is that in Wisconsin, which is already a very closely watched state, we’re going to be watching it for about a week longer before the results can be known,” said Eddie Perez, an election administration expert with the OSET Institute.
Even with the changes, Perez noted, North Carolina is in a slightly better position to have at least some of the mail voting results available quickly, because the state allows officials to begin processing received mail ballots two weeks before Election Day.
But in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania<https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-16-when-absentee-mail-ballot-processing-and-counting-can-begin.aspx>, election officials can’t begin the arduous process until polls open on Nov. 3.
In a new poll<https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=3674> released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University, 63% of likely voters surveyed said they did not believe the country would know who the winning presidential candidate is on election night. Just 30% thought there would be a winner declared on Nov. 3.
Regardless, the new changes could almost certainly play a role in who wins both states.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
How Realistic Is It That State Legislatures Would Take Back Their Power to Choose Electors Directly This Fall?<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115664>
Posted on September 24, 2020 8:07 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115664> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
I wrote a thread on Twitter about this, starting here:<https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1309143625268330497>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
Judge Amy Barrett on Originalism<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115658>
Posted on September 24, 2020 7:47 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115658> by Richard Pildes<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=7>
In the event she is nominated, I thought this video of her speaking on originalism might be of interest. This is from the 2019 Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention. Judge Barrett spoke on a “Showcase Panel, titled “Why, or Why Not, Be an Originalist,” along with myself, and Professors Michael Dorf and Sai Prakash.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“First Came the Floods; Then Came the Polling Place Changes”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115660>
Posted on September 24, 2020 7:43 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115660> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
CPI:<https://publicintegrity.org/politics/elections/ballotboxbarriers/first-came-the-floods-then-came-the-polling-place-changes/>
Twenty-six percent of Black voters in East Baton Rouge Parish had their polling place changed between the 2012 and 2016 general elections, compared with 15% of white voters in the parish, according to a new analysis of polling place movement by the Center for Public Integrity and Stateline.
The changes to East Baton Rouge Parish’s polling places in the wake of the 2016 floods added confusion for voters already preoccupied with reconstructing their lives in the wake of the disaster. Many advocates say recovery was slower in the parish’s majority-Black neighborhoods, where residents already struggled with systemic inequities before the storm.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“Facebook allowed hundreds of misleading super PAC ads, activist group finds”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115657>
Posted on September 24, 2020 7:39 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=115657> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
CNN<https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/23/tech/facebook-super-pac-ads/index.html?utm_source=twbusiness&utm_medium=social&utm_term=link&utm_content=2020-09-24T05%3A01%3A02>:
Facebook (FB<https://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=FB&source=story_quote_link>) has allowed political advertisers to target hundreds of misleading ads about Joe Biden and the US Postal Service to swing-state voters ranging from Florida to Wisconsin in recent weeks, in an apparent failure to enforce its own platform rules less than two months before Election Day.
The ads containing false or misleading information, primarily by a pro-Republican super PAC led by former Trump administration officials, have collectively been viewed more than 10 million times and some of the ads remain active on the service, according to an analysis of Facebook’s ad transparency data by the activist group Avaaz<https://secure.avaaz.org/page/en/>.
Two super PACs emerged as the worst offenders in Avaaz’s analysis: the pro-Trump group America First Action<https://www.a1apac.org/>, and the pro-Democratic group Stop Republicans. But the report found that AFA’s activities far exceeded those of Stop Republicans<https://stop-republicans.org/>, both in terms of money spent and impressions received.
While Facebook allows politicians to make false claims in their ads — arguing that voters deserve an unfiltered view of what candidates and elected officials say — advertisements by super PACs and other independent groups are subject to the company’s policies on misinformation.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, cheap speech<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=130>
--
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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