[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/5/21

Mon Apr 5 08:02:40 PDT 2021

Justice Thomas, Who Believes First Amendment Allows Unlimited, Undisclosed Corporate Spending, Also Thinks the Government Can Ban Twitter from Excluding Content It Doesn’t Like<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121482>
Posted on April 5, 2021 7:58 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121482> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Remarkable<https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1379065122858147843>: (read the whole thread)
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Posted in cheap speech<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=130>

I Was on the “Notorious” Podcast About RBG, Talking About Justice Ginsburg’s Position on Equal Protection in Bush v. Gore<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121480>
Posted on April 5, 2021 7:55 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121480> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

You can listen here<https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=461f81b0-19c0-45a1-8bc9-30ca883dc5c0>.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

If Trump Were Allowed Back on Twitter, He Would Continue to Falsely Claim the Election Was Stolen and Undermine Election Integrity<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121477>
Posted on April 5, 2021 7:41 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121477> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Here’s the statement<https://twitter.com/theatlantavoice/status/1378152814669627392/photo/1> he issued on Good Friday:
[cid:image002.jpg at 01D729F2.0C147250]
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>

“Issue One launches new democracy reform speaker series tomorrow — inaugural event to focus on impact of state voting proposals”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121475>
Posted on April 5, 2021 7:25 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121475> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Via email:

Issue One is convening leading experts and officials tomorrow for a new speaker series designed to explore the most pressing matters facing American democracy today and how we can fix our broken political system.

The first event in the series, “How State Voting Proposals Could Impact How Millions of Americans Vote,” kicks off tomorrow, Tuesday, April 6 from 12-1pm ET, and will feature an important dialogue about efforts to curtail access to voting, and what we can do to make the electoral process even more secure and accessible — instead of making it harder for people to vote. This will be an on-the-record event and press are invited to attend.

Please click here<https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=4tNED-2FM8iDZJQyQ53jATUR3t7nCZ5mr5TugMVXy6hAh4ta5mMjeybqoW2OMIVJZBaSkKtTDjSxAxvPTwxa0IJBpgVJ7nNm843ojnNH3L63U-3DGufi_LYw3uDP5U2cmeBBe07KqI8AzZYA0AXw8fCnkHEVTP6CkfRLHjg1cuOsDjSq4rOK2frZFOU9MKjFaw4dPHVdUzeE1pYlmhF6fDBaKBZuSK9WhFI7Jth7L05iz6AIxDKqU-2FZjpamV-2FVVAuCuzlBmLHduXPiy-2FiFhSDQINT-2FhjGN1nzHn-2BItbcEdHRomqEk04dPxgtehAEEpXbn4YH-2BWziOu7IiqZN0I-2Fh6W0sVpDO91yHTEu9bpG-2B-2BtK1M5xp33hQ5b7IfRUH8KIftci-2BGFBJDRo6k-2BdXq6QARYJmSRvOI-2Bq4PlK1per3v1bJNNxqKP7nN-2FxPt6rvoZmYRcQRszJ8LLWDiCaahoGMVUUQXHbYgwfU-3D> to register and let us know you’re attending.

Already in 2021, state legislators have introduced more than 360 bills in 47 states to make it harder to vote, including measures to limit the early voting options that 85 million people used to safely vote in 2020, an election with the highest turnout in a century. This wave of legislation follows months of disinformation about the validity and security of the 2020 general election.

The event will feature Issue One’s CEO and Founder Nick Penniman in conversation with:
·         Secretary Trey Grayson, former Republican Secretary of State of Kentucky
·         Steven Greenhut, Resident Senior Fellow and Western Region Director at the R Street Institute
·         Eliza Sweren-Becker, Counsel, Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice

We hope you can join us tomorrow, and be on the lookout for our upcoming speaker series events.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Government Watchdog Sues U.S. Election Assistance Commission to Disclose Communications with Voting Machine Companies”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121473>
Posted on April 5, 2021 7:21 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121473> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Release<https://freespeechforpeople.org/government-watchdog-sues-u-s-election-assistance-commission-to-disclose-communications-with-voting-machine-companies/>.
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Posted in Election Assistance Commission<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=34>

“Culture wars strain once unshakeable bond between Republicans, corporate America”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121471>
Posted on April 5, 2021 7:17 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121471> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NBC News reports.<https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/culture-wars-strain-once-unshakeable-bond-between-republicans-corporate-america-n1262797>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Charlotte Hill Responds to Nate Cohn on Voting Reforms and Turnout<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121468>
Posted on April 4, 2021 3:53 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121468> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Important thread.<https://twitter.com/hill_charlotte/status/1378411340193177601>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Politifact Rates as “Mostly False” Statement That Michigan election bills are “designed to make it easier for people to vote.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121466>
Posted on April 4, 2021 3:45 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121466> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The latest.<https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/apr/02/michael-macdonald/mich-gops-proposed-election-law-changes-would-make/>
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>

“One Republican’s Lonely Fight Against a Flood of Disinformation”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121464>
Posted on April 4, 2021 3:23 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121464> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/us/politics/denver-riggleman-republican-disinformation.html>

Denver Riggleman stood virtually alone.

It was Oct. 2, on the floor of the House of Representatives, and he rose as one of only two Republicans in the chamber to speak in favor of a resolution<https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/1154/text> denouncing QAnon. Mr. Riggleman, a freshman congressman from Virginia, had his own personal experiences with fringe ideas, both as a target of them and as a curious observer of the power they hold over true believers. He saw a dangerous movement becoming more intertwined with his party, and worried that it was only growing thanks to words of encouragement from President Donald J. Trump.

“Will we stand up and condemn a dangerous, dehumanizing and convoluted conspiracy theory that the F.B.I. has assessed with high confidence is very likely to motivate some domestic extremists?” asked Mr. Riggleman, a former Air Force intelligence officer. “We should not be playing with fire.”

Six months later, conspiracy theories like QAnon remain a threat that most Republicans would rather ignore than confront, and Mr. Riggleman is out of office. But he is ever more determined to try to expose disinformation from the far right that is swaying legions in the Republican base to believe in a false reality.

Mr. Riggleman is a living example of the political price of falling out of lock step with the hard right. He lost a G.O.P. primary race last June<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/14/us/politics/denver-riggleman-virginia-primary-bob-good.html> after he officiated at the wedding<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/conservative-gop-congressman-presides-at-gay-wedding-in-virginia/2019/07/15/a7929c00-a714-11e9-86dd-d7f0e60391e9_story.html> of a gay couple. And once he started calling out QAnon, whose followers believe that a satanic network of child molesters runs the Democratic Party, he received death threats and was attacked as a traitor, including by members of his own family.
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Posted in cheap speech<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=130>, political polarization<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=68>

“Inside a stealth ‘persuasion machine’ promising Republican victories in 2022”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121462>
Posted on April 4, 2021 3:21 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121462> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-midterms-digital-influence/2021/04/03/391103a8-8c0e-11eb-a730-1b4ed9656258_story.html>

 Facebook page shows a child scampering down a school corridor, alerting Ohio families to a scholarship program.

Chatter fills the same page with news ranging from a state anti-corruption bill to the vibrant local real estate market. “It’s a great time to be selling a home in Columbus,” one post celebrates.

Titled Arise Ohio, the Facebook page is the creation of the American Culture Project — a nonprofit whose website says its mission is to “empower Americans with the tools and information necessary to make their voices heard in their local communities, statehouses and beyond.”

Undisclosed on the Facebook page is the nonprofit’s partisan goal. Arise Ohio and similar sites aimed at other politically pivotal states are part of a novel strategy by a little-known, Republican-aligned group to make today’s GOP<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-gop-money/2021/03/27/fa413606-82a4-11eb-bb5a-ad9a91faa4ef_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_6> more palatable to moderate voters ahead of the 2022 midterms by reshaping the “cultural narrative” on hot-button issues.ADADVERTISING

That goal, laid out in a private fundraising appeal sent last month to a Republican donor and reviewed by The Washington Post, relies on building new online communities that can be tapped at election time, with a focus on winning back Congress in 2022.

“We’ve created a persuasion machine that allows conservatives to reach, engage and move people to action like never before,” the solicitation states. “Now is the time to expand and capitalize on this machine, setting the political playing field in advance of the 2022 election.”…

The solicitation was sent to Warren Stephens, a billionaire banker based in Arkansas who backed President Donald Trump’s reelection effort. It was also inadvertently directed to someone who shared the communications with The Post. The documents provide an unusual glimpse into the inner workings of a group whose activities are ordinarily veiled and illustrate how the Republican Party, still largely defined by Trump, is straining to connect with the country’s political center.

Stephens, through a spokesman, declined to say whether he had made a contribution to the project.

Read the fundraising pitch outlining the American Culture Project’s objectives<https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/reclaiming-the-public-narrative-a-fundraising-proposal-from-the-culture-project/773e152e-8f1a-4ef2-bab9-1adc5e7c17d2/?itid=lk_readmore_manual_17>

The American Culture Project is set up as a social welfare organization<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2013/05/13/what-is-a-501c4-anyway/?itid=lk_inline_manual_18> exempt from disclosing its donors or paying federal income taxes but, in exchange, barred from making politics its primary focus. The project is led by an Illinois-based conservative activist, John Tillman, who also oversees a libertarian think tank and a news foundation that recently received grant money to highlight opposition to public health restrictions<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/texas-mask-mandate-abbott/2021/03/04/ceec92bc-7d12-11eb-b3d1-9e5aa3d5220c_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_18>. Tillman, who declined to be interviewed for this story, wrote in an email that the American Culture Project’s objectives are “issue education and advocacy (not electioneering).”
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, cheap speech<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=130>

“Her Ballot Didn’t Count. She Faces 5 Years in Prison for Casting It.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121459>
Posted on April 4, 2021 3:04 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121459> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/us/texas-provisional-ballot-appeal.html>:

On Election Day 2016, Crystal Mason went to vote after her mother insisted that she make her voice heard in the presidential election. When her name didn’t appear on official voting rolls at her polling place in Tarrant County, Texas, she filled out a provisional ballot, not thinking anything of it.

Ms. Mason’s ballot was never officially counted or tallied<https://search.txcourts.gov/SearchMedia.aspx?MediaVersionID=ae019747-5045-479e-acf9-91c3d893da4f&coa=coa02&DT=Brief&MediaID=fd9a3c87-066d-489e-a0bc-e09121a4009b> because she was ineligible to vote: She was on supervised release after serving five years for tax fraud. Nonetheless, that ballot has wrangled her into a lengthy appeals process after a state district court sentenced her to five years in prison for illegal voting, as she was a felon on probation when she cast her ballot.

Ms. Mason maintains that she didn’t know she was ineligible to vote.

“This is very overwhelming, waking up every day knowing that prison is on the line, trying to maintain a smile on your face in front of your kids and you don’t know the outcome,” Ms. Mason said in a phone interview. “Your future is in someone else’s hands because of a simple error.”

Her case is now headed for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest state court for criminal cases, whose judges said on Wednesday that they had decided to hear it. Ms. Mason unsuccessfully asked for a new trial<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/us/texas-woman-voter-fraud.html> and lost her case in an appellate court….

The appeals court’s decision could set an important precedent for the future of how the public interprets voting, especially if they’re confused, according to Joseph R. Fishkin, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He said he hoped that the court establishes a principle not to “criminalize people for being confused about the complexities of the interaction between the criminal law and election law.”

Professor Fishkin said that he and many other law experts believe that if the court upholds Ms. Mason’s conviction, the state would be in direct conflict with the federal Help America Vote Act.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“How Trump Steered Supporters Into Unwitting Donations”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121456>
Posted on April 4, 2021 3:00 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121456> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Must-read<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/us/politics/trump-donations.html> Shane Goldmacher NYT piece:

Stacy Blatt was in hospice care last September listening to Rush Limbaugh’s dire warnings about how badly Donald J. Trump’s campaign needed money when he went online and chipped in everything he could: $500.

It was a big sum for a 63-year-old battling cancer and living in Kansas City on less than $1,000 per month. But that single contribution — federal records show it was his first ever — quickly multiplied. Another $500 was withdrawn the next day, then $500 the next week and every week through mid-October, without his knowledge — until Mr. Blatt’s bank account had been depleted and frozen. When his utility and rent payments bounced, he called his brother, Russell, for help.

What the Blatts soon discovered was $3,000 in withdrawals by the Trump campaign in less than 30 days. They called their bank and said they thought they were victims of fraud.

“It felt,” Russell said, “like it was a scam.”

But what the Blatts believed was duplicity was actually an intentional scheme to boost revenues by the Trump campaign and the for-profit company that processed its online donations, WinRed. Facing a cash crunch<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/us/politics/trump-election-campaign-fundraising.html> and getting badly outspent by the Democrats, the campaign had begun last September to set up recurring donations by default for online donors, for every week until the election.

Contributors had to wade through a fine-print disclaimer and manually uncheck a box to opt out.

As the election neared, the Trump team made that disclaimer increasingly opaque, an investigation by The New York Times showed. It introduced a second prechecked box, known internally as a “money bomb,” that doubled a person’s contribution. Eventually its solicitations featured lines of text in bold and capital letters that overwhelmed the opt-out language.

The tactic ensnared scores of unsuspecting Trump loyalists — retirees, military veterans, nurses and even experienced political operatives. Soon, banks and credit card companies were inundated withfraud complaints from the president’s own supporters about donations they had not intended to make, sometimes for thousands of dollars.

“Bandits!” said Victor Amelino, a 78-year-old Californian, who made a $990 online donation to Mr. Trump in early September via WinRed. It recurred seven more times — adding up to almost $8,000. “I’m retired. I can’t afford to pay all that damn money.”

The sheer magnitude of the money involved is staggering for politics. In the final two and a half months of 2020, the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and their shared accounts issued more than 530,000 refunds worth $64.3 million to online donors. All campaigns make refunds for various reasons, including to people who give more than the legal limit. But the sum the Trump operation refunded dwarfed that of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s campaign and his equivalent Democratic committees, which made 37,000 online refunds totaling $5.6 million in that time.

The recurring donations swelled Mr. Trump’s treasury in September and October, just as his finances were deteriorating. He was then able to use tens of millions of dollars he raised after the election, under the guise of fighting his unfounded fraud claims, to help cover the refunds he owed.

MORE<https://twitter.com/ShaneGoldmacher/status/1378399587426254850>:
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“All eyes are on Georgia. Again.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121454>
Posted on April 4, 2021 2:56 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121454> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Politico:<https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/04/georgia-voting-law-479002?nname=playbook&nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&nrid=0000014e-f109-dd93-ad7f-f90d0def0000&nlid=630318>

The fight over the future of elections in Georgia — and, some say, the soul of the nation — is playing out on multiple fronts, materializing as not only a political battle but also a legal battle, a legislative battle and a moral battle. And now, as businesses from Coke to Delta condemn the law, and Republicans threaten to retaliate by zapping their tax breaks<https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/01/politics/georgia-voting-law-house-delta-tax-breaks/index.html>, it’s become a corporate battle, too.

On Friday, the sports world got involved, when Major League Baseball pulled its All-Star Game and its draft out of the state. But not everyone, including Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, agrees that boycotts are the answer.

What’s happening here is being duplicated across the country — Georgia is among the 47 states where legislators have introduced more than 360 restrictive voting bills, according to a tally by the Brennan Center for Justice<https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-march-2021> — and elected officials and voters across the country are paying attention.
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“Georgia’s Election Law, and Why Turnout Isn’t Easy to Turn Off”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121452>
Posted on April 4, 2021 2:54 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121452> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Nate Cohn<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/upshot/georgia-election-law-turnout.html> at NYT’s The UpShot:

There’s nothing unusual about exaggeration in politics. But when it comes to the debate over voting rights, something more than exaggeration is going on.

There’s a real — and bipartisan — misunderstanding about whether making it easier or harder to vote, especially by mail, has a significant effect on turnout or electoral outcomes. The evidence suggests it does not.

The fight over the new Georgia election law is only the latest example. That law, passed last week<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/25/us/politics/georgia-voting-law-republicans.html>, has been condemned by Democrats as voter suppression, or even as tantamount to Jim Crow.

Democrats are understandably concerned about a provision that empowers the Republican-controlled State Legislature to play a larger role in election administration. That provision has uncertain but potentially substantial effects, depending on what the Legislature might do in the future. And it’s possible the law is intended to do exactly what progressives fear: reshape the electorate to the advantage of Republicans, soon after an electoral defeat, by making it harder to vote.

And yet the law’s voting provisions are unlikely to significantly affect turnout or Democratic chances. It could plausibly even increase turnout. In the final account, it will probably be hard to say whether it had any effect on turnout at all.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Dominion Voting Systems accuses ex-Michigan senator of ‘disinformation campaign'”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121450>
Posted on April 4, 2021 2:50 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121450> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Detroit News:<https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2021/04/03/dominion-voting-systems-accuses-ex-michigan-senator-disinformation-campaign/7076894002/>

Dominion Voting Systems is demanding that Patrick Colbeck, a former Michigan lawmaker, retract “false claims” he’s been making about the company in PowerPoint presentations.

Dominion sent Colbeck, who’s from Canton, a letter on Friday, according to a document obtained by The Detroit News. The company says Colbeck is waging a “disinformation campaign” while touring Michigan to give presentations entitled “Case for MI Decertification,” which blames Dominion for “stealing the election” from former President Donald Trump.

“You are knowingly sowing discord in our democracy, all the while soliciting exorbitant amounts of money — totaling over $1 million so far — from your audiences paid directly to your personal business,” says the letter signed by attorneys Thomas Clare and Megan Meier.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>

“Georgia’s New Voter Suppression Law and Corporate Support”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121448>
Posted on April 4, 2021 2:49 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121448> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Ciara Torres Spelliscy<https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/georgias-new-voter-suppression-law-and-corporate-support> at the Brennan Center.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“More than 170 Companies Call on Elected Officials to Protect Voting Access”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121446>
Posted on April 2, 2021 7:48 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121446> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Release<https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210402005077/en/More-than-170-Companies-Call-on-Elected-Officials-to-Protect-Voting-Access>:

Today, more than 170 Civic Alliance member companies issued a Joint Statement for Protecting Voting Access<https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.civicalliance.com%2Fvotingaccess&esheet=52405892&newsitemid=20210402005077&lan=en-US&anchor=Joint+Statement+for+Protecting+Voting+Access&index=1&md5=e357dc7c7fdf7c2227deb4c415191f0d>:

“The Right to Vote is the Cornerstone of our Democracy. We believe every American should have a voice in our democracy and that voting should be safe and accessible to all voters. We stand in solidarity with voters 一 and with the Black executives and leaders at the helm of this movement 一 in our nonpartisan commitment to equality and democracy. If our government is going to work for all of us, each of us must have equal freedom to vote and elections must reflect the will of voters.

Our elections are not improved when lawmakers impose barriers that result in longer lines at the polls or that reduce access to secure ballot drop boxes. There are hundreds of bills threatening to make voting more difficult in dozens of states nationwide. We call on elected leaders in every state capitol and in Congress to work across the aisle and ensure that every eligible American has the freedom to easily cast their ballot and participate fully in our democracy.“
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Virginia, the Old Confederacy’s Heart, Becomes a Voting Rights Bastion”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121444>
Posted on April 2, 2021 6:53 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121444> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/02/us/politics/virginia-voting-rights-northam.html>

 Georgia has sharply limited voting access<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/25/us/politics/georgia-voting-law-republicans.html>, making drop boxes less available and forbidding anyone to hand out water to voters in line. Florida and Texas are poised to advance similar legislation. Alabama’s strict voter identification law is being used as a template<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/us/politics/republican-voter-laws.html> elsewhere.

As states across the South race to establish new voting restrictions, Virginia is bolting in the opposite direction. The Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, this week capped a multiyear liberal movement for greater ballot access by signing off on sweeping legislation to recreate pivotal elements of the federal Voting Rights Act that were struck down by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority in 2013<https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/us/supreme-court-ruling.html>.

Alone among the states of the former Confederacy, Virginia has become a voting rights bastion, increasingly encouraging its citizens — especially people of color — to exercise their democratic rights. In the last 14 months, the state’s Democratic-controlled General Assembly and Mr. Northam have together repealed the state’s voter ID law<https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?ses=201&typ=bil&val=hb19>, enacted 45 days of no-excuse absentee voting<https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?ses=201&typ=bil&val=hb1&ses=201&typ=bil&val=hb1>, made Election Day a state holiday<https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+SB601> and enacted automatic voter registration<https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+SB219> for anyone who receives a Virginia driver’s license.

Virginia, which for nearly 50 years had to submit changes to its elections to the federal government for approval under the Voting Rights Act’s preclearance requirements, has now effectively imposed the same covenants on itself, an extraordinary step for a state with a long history of segregation and racially targeted voting laws.
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Posted in Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>

“N.Y. School Board Owes NAACP $5 Million in Voting Case Fees”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121442>
Posted on April 2, 2021 6:48 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121442> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Bloomberg Law:<https://www.bloomberglaw.com/product/blaw/bloomberglawnews/bloomberg-law-news/BNA%2000000178-8d9f-d0b1-a17b-afffed8c0001?bwid=00000178-8d9f-d0b1-a17b-afffed8c0001>

The East Ramapo Central School District in New York must pay more than $5 million in attorneys’ fees, expert witness fees, and costs to a local branch of the NAACP and four voters who successfully sued it for diluting Black and Latino residents’ votes, a federal court in New York ruled.

The fee decision by Judge Cathy Seibel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, docketed Wednesday, comes after an appellate ruling Jan. 6 affirming<https://www.bloomberglaw.com/product/blaw/citation/BNA%2000000176d8a2d1cfa377f8aa23180001?bna_news_filter=true> the win for the Spring Valley Branch of the NAACP and the voters. The district’s at-large election system kept minority-preferred candidates out of office in violation of the Voting Rights Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D121442&title=%E2%80%9CN.Y.%20School%20Board%20Owes%20NAACP%20%245%20Million%20in%20Voting%20Case%20Fees%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>

“These Are The Businesses Speaking Out Against Texas’ Newly Proposed Election Laws”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121440>
Posted on April 2, 2021 6:46 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121440> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NPR:<https://www.npr.org/2021/04/02/983709091/these-are-the-businesses-speaking-out-against-texass-newly-proposed-election-law>

Major corporations with offices in Texas are speaking out against new legislative proposals in the state that would curb expanded voter access.

Corporate heavy hitters American Airlines, which is located in Fort Worth, and Dell Technologies, headquartered in Round Rock, were the first to criticize recent attempts to alter state election laws.

Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell announced his company’s opposition to House Bill 6<https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB6/2021>, which legislators are still in the process of approving. The bill aims to prohibit local election officials from sending out mail-in ballot applications, among other provisions.

In a tweet Thursday, Dell said, “Free, fair, equitable access to voting is the foundation of American democracy. Those rights — especially for women, communities of color — have been hard-earned.”
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“What Georgia’s Voting Law Really Does”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121438>
Posted on April 2, 2021 6:41 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121438> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT analysis<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/02/us/politics/georgia-voting-law-annotated.html>:

Go page by page through Georgia’s new voting law, and one takeaway stands above all others: The Republican legislature and governor have made a breathtaking assertion of partisan power in elections<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/25/us/politics/georgia-voting-law-republicans.html>, making absentee voting harder and creating restrictions and complications in the wake of narrow losses to Democrats.

The New York Times has examined and annotated the law, identifying 16 provisions that hamper the right to vote for some Georgians or strip power from state and local elections officials and give it to legislators.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Republicans seek DOJ briefing on claims of ‘suspicious’ pre-Jan. 6 Capitol tours”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121436>
Posted on April 1, 2021 12:17 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121436> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Politico<https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/01/republicans-doj-capitol-tours-478825>:

The GOP letter comes nearly three months after thousands of supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol and sent lawmakers fleeing for safety, delaying the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. More than 100 police officers were injured, including one who died hours after the attack, and more than 300 participants in the attack have been arrested.

Although the Capitol Police have declined repeatedly to discuss the probe publicly, the agency has acknowledged providing tens of thousands of hours of footage of the insurrection to lawmakers. A source familiar with the House’s investigations said the department has also turned over heaps of footage from the five days before Jan. 6.

Republicans have grown increasingly frustrated that authorities have allowed the charges leveled by Democrats to linger without updates for nearly three months. If any lawmakers or aides helped rioters stakeout the building, Davis has emphasized, it’s urgent to expose them to protect Congress from an insider threat. And if evidence doesn’t support the charge, it should be easy to resolve through security footage, much of which has been turned over to lawmakers already.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Future Voters and Gaps in Our Democracy”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121434>
Posted on April 1, 2021 12:15 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121434> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Among the findings in this Civics Center report<https://thecivicscenter.org/publications#summary> on the 50th anniversary of the passage of the 26th Amendment:

We put enormous effort into creating it, and it has new research that I think your readers will find meaningful.  Here are some key findings:
·         4 million people turn 18 every year in the US, and the vast majority of them are eligible to register to vote before they graduate high school, but there is little infrastructure in place to actually help them.
·         Low registration rates drive low turnout. Among LA County 18-year-olds who were registered to vote in time for the 2020 general election, turnout was 75%. When young people are registered they turn out. The biggest obstacle to voter registration for youth is not apathy, it’s voter registration.
·         Only 10% of 16-and 17-year olds in Los Angeles County are preregistered to vote.
·         Most high schools in LA County are doing little or nothing to implement California laws that are designed to promote high school voter registration
·         School districts reporting more robust voter registration activities generally have higher registration rates than other districts.
·         Poverty is less of a factor in low youth turnout in Los Angeles County than lack of voter registration.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Analysis of the Antrim County, Michigan November 2020 Election Incident”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121432>
Posted on April 1, 2021 12:11 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121432> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

New report<https://www.michigan.gov/documents/sos/Antrim_720623_7.pdf> from Alex Halderman for the Michigan SOS.

Detroit News: Michigan expert debunks infamous report on Antrim County election as ‘meaningless’<https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2021/04/01/michigan-expert-debunks-infamous-report-antrim-county-election/4835645001/>
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voting technology<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>

“How We Voted in 2020: A look at the Survey of the Performance of American Elections”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121430>
Posted on April 1, 2021 9:19 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121430> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Electionline:<https://electionline.org/electionline-weekly/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=April%201%202021&utm_content=April%201%202021+CID_772ba621ac1d4979ef2ca2f3fabce7ed&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=Read%20More#tab-1>

The MIT Election Lab team has been hard at work at a number of data puzzle pieces since the 2020 election — our ongoing precinct data project<https://electionlab.mit.edu/data>, for example. The piece we launched this week, though, is something we’ve been particularly excited about: the latest iteration of the Survey of the Performance of American Elections<https://bit.ly/SPAE2020> (SPAE).

The SPAE provides information about how Americans experience voting during a federal election. It is the only national survey of election administration that focuses on the process of voting, and provides insights into election performance in the individual states. It’s been conducted in every presidential election since 2008, giving us over a decade of data to draw from.

In 2020, 18,200 registered voters responded to the survey. Two hundred respondents each were interviewed in 40 states plus the District of Columbia, and 1000 interviews were conducted in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. We’re grateful to many folks for making this year’s survey possible, including the Democracy Fund, which supported the 2020 SPAE in part.

On Monday, March 29th, we released a report summarizing our findings from the survey, as well as the SPAE questionnaire and data. We encourage you to read the report and examine the data yourself, if you’re so inclined! You can find everything linked through this portal page on our website<https://bit.ly/SPAE2020> (which also links back to previous years’ data and findings).

To start you off – or for those of you who we know are pressed for time – we’ve summarized some of the top findings from our report below.

Voting by mail vs. in person:
·         The percentage of voters casting ballots by mail grew to 46 percent, more than doubling the fraction from 2016. On the other hand, the share of voters casting ballots on Election Day fell to 28 percent, from 60 percent in 2016. Sixty percent of Democrats, compared to 32 percent of Republicans, reported voting by mail.
·         Voters who cast ballots in person and by mail continued to express high levels of satisfaction with the process, as in past years. Average wait times to vote increased for all modes of in-person voting, and in most states.
·         Only about half of the ballots that were mailed to voters were returned by mail. Twenty-two percent of mail ballots were returned to drop boxes. In the long-standing vote-by-mail states of Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, 60 percent were returned to drop boxes.

Voting in a pandemic:
·         Worry about COVID was the top reason cited for voting by mail. But 59 percent of in-person voters were “very confident” that the public health measures in their polling place would protect against catching COVID.
·         Eighty-seven percent of in-person voters report seeing poll workers wearing masks.

Voter confidence and perceptions of fraud:
·         Measured across all voters, confidence that votes were counted as intended remained similar to past years. However, significant partisan gaps opened up.
·         Among Republicans, lack of confidence in whether votes were counted as intended at the state level was strongly correlated with whether Donald Trump won the respondent’s state and with the fraction of votes cast by mail in the state.
·         Partisan attitudes about the prevalence of several types of vote fraud became more polarized in 2020, particularly attitudes about absentee ballot fraud.

Attitudes toward election reform:
·         Voters’ attitudes around reform — both overall support and partisan divisions — remained similar to past years. However, partisan divisions opened up further for voting by mail.
·         Requiring electronic voting machines to have paper backups, automatically changing registrations when voters move, requiring election officials to be nonpartisan, declaring Election Day a holiday, and requiring voters to show a photo ID to vote were supported by majorities of both Democrats and Republicans.
·         Adopting automatic voter registration, election-day registration, and moving elections to weekends are supported by a majority of voters, but not by a majority of Republicans.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Here’s How Democrats’ Sweeping Voting Rights Law Would Work”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121428>
Posted on April 1, 2021 8:16 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121428> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Michael Wines reports<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/us/politics/voting-rights-law.html> for the NYT.
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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
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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