[EL] ELB News and Commentary 3/4/21

[Rick Hasen]

“House scraps plans for Thursday session after security officials warn of possible plot to breach Capitol”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121057>
Posted on March 4, 2021 6:34 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121057> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/03/joe-biden-live-updates/>

The House scrapped plans for a Thursday session after security officials warned of a possible plot by an unnamed militant group to breach the Capitol. The decision to move up votes on legislation to Wednesday night came after officials warned of credible threats of violence circulated by right-wing extremists that March 4 is the “true Inauguration Day” when former president Donald Trump will be sworn in for a second term. The Senate plans to be in session Thursday.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Targeting State Restrictions, House Passes Landmark Voting Rights Expansion”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121055>
Posted on March 4, 2021 6:31 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121055> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/03/us/politics/house-voting-rights-bill.html>

House Democrats pushed through a sweeping expansion of federal voting rights on Wednesday over unified Republican opposition, opening a new front in a raging national debate about elections aimed at countering G.O.P. attempts to clamp down on ballot access.

The bill, adopted 220 to 210 mostly along party lines, would constitute the most significant enhancement of federal voting protections since the 1960s if it became law. It aims to impose new national requirements weakening restrictive state voter ID laws, mandate automatic voter registration, expand early and mail-in voting, make it harder to purge voter rolls and restore voting rights to former felons — changes that studies suggest would increase voter participation, especially by racial minorities.

The vote was the latest bid by Democrats to beat back Republican efforts in statehouses across the country to enact new barriers to voting<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/us/republican-voter-suppression.html> that would consolidate power for the Republican Party amid false claims of rampant election fraud heralded by former President Donald J. Trump and many of his allies in Congress.

But the measure, which is supported by President Biden, appears to be doomed for now in the Senate, where Republican opposition would make it all but impossible to draw the 60 votes needed to advance. Democratic leaders have vowed to put it up for a vote anyway, and progressives were already plotting to use Republican obstruction of the bill to build their case for jettisoning the legislative filibuster in the months ahead.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Supreme Court Case Could Limit Options to Fight Republican Voting Restrictions”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121053>
Posted on March 3, 2021 11:07 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121053> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT reports.<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/03/us/politics/supreme-court-voting-rights-act.html>
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Posted in Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>, Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>


“The Assault on Voting Rights”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121051>
Posted on March 3, 2021 10:12 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121051> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Jerry Goldfeder podcast.<https://vimeo.com/518721387>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“The most engaging political news on Facebook? Far-right misinformation.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121049>
Posted on March 3, 2021 7:23 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121049> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Protocol:<https://www.protocol.com/facebook-misinformation-far-right-politics>

In the months before and after the 2020 election, far-right pages that are known to spread misinformation consistently garnered more engagement on Facebook than any other partisan news, according to a New York University study<https://medium.com/@CybersecurityforDemocracy/far-right-news-sources-on-facebook-more-engaging-e04a01efae90> published Wednesday.

The study looked at Facebook engagement for news sources across the political spectrum between Aug. 10, 2020 and Jan. 11, 2021, and found that on average, far-right pages that regularly trade in misinformation raked in 65% more engagement per follower than other far-right pages that aren’t known for spreading misinformation.

That finding was specific to the far right. In every other category — including far left, slightly left, center and slightly right — misinformation pages saw significantly less engagement than non-misinformation pages of the same political slant.
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Posted in 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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