[EL] ELB News and Commentary 3/29/21

Mon Mar 29 07:14:08 PDT 2021

“What Does Georgia’s New Voting Law SB 202 Do?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121355>
Posted on March 29, 2021 7:09 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121355> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Useful explainer<https://www.gpb.org/news/2021/03/27/what-does-georgias-new-voting-law-sb-202-do> from Stephen Fowler of GPB.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Georgia’s sweeping elections overhaul faces new legal challenge”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121353>
Posted on March 29, 2021 7:06 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121353> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AJC: reports.<https://www.ajc.com/politics/politics-blog/georgias-sweeping-elections-overhaul-faces-new-legal-challenge/ARLWEI7SENEKNC4VUGWSHGGUIA/>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“No, Delaware doesn’t specifically prohibit food or water at the polls like Georgia”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121351>
Posted on March 29, 2021 7:00 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121351> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Two Pinocchios<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/29/no-delaware-doesnt-specifically-prohibit-food-or-water-polls-like-georgia/> for Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the GA Secretary of State.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“The States Where Efforts To Restrict Voting Are Escalating”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121349>
Posted on March 29, 2021 6:49 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121349> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

538 analysis.<https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-states-where-efforts-to-restrict-voting-are-escalating/?mkt_tok=ODUwLVRBQS01MTEAAAF8HPvaDHsu575VSPrdqcpuJ73DuCZRxRZkLC8pM6EM3DnvDRryshRmUNaCru7BcEQnXVGA0pYARcdtMnCafagawuiCN79zM-2jvwgjU_NSMNrk>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“After Trump tried to intervene in the 2020 vote, state Republicans are moving to take more control of elections”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121347>
Posted on March 28, 2021 4:15 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121347> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

New Amy Gardner<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-election-control/2021/03/26/064fffcc-8cb4-11eb-a730-1b4ed9656258_story.html> for WaPo:

State Republicans have taken steps this year that could give them more power to sway the certification of election results, efforts that voting advocates decried as a blatant attempt to circumvent the popular vote, as President Donald Trump tried to do after his defeat in November.

Amid an avalanche of voting legislation proposed in dozens of states, the moves go beyond highly scrutinized proposals to tighten rules around how ballots are cast in the name of election security. Critics say some of the initiatives attempt to clear the way for partisan actors to take control of election administration, as Trump unsuccessfully urged Republicans to do in the fall.

On Thursday, Gov. Brian Kemp (R) of Georgia signed the most far-reaching effort yet into law — a sweeping voting measure <https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/georgia-voting-restrictions/2021/03/25/91009e72-8da1-11eb-9423-04079921c915_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_5> that undercuts the power of the secretary of state and local election boards. The new law removes the secretary of state from serving as chair of the State Board of Elections, giving the legislature the authority to appoint a majority of the members, and authorizes the state board to suspend local election officials.

If these measures had been in place in 2020, critics say, the state board could have tried to interfere when the secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger, certified Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the state and rejected Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that the election was stolen.

Raffensperger emerged as a staunch defender of the integrity of Georgia’s vote, even as Trump repeatedly attacked him and cajoled him in an hour-long conversation<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia-vote/2021/01/03/d45acb92-4dc4-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_10> in January, urging him to “find” the votes to reverse Biden’s win in the state.

Separately, the new power to suspend county election boards could give state officials unprecedented influence over all manner of election decisions, including the acceptance and rejection of mail ballots, early-voting hours, poll-worker hiring and the number of polling locations, critics say.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>
“Court fight against Georgia voting overhaul no sure thing”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121345>
Posted on March 28, 2021 4:12 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121345> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Mark Sherman<https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-legislature-georgia-legislation-voting-rights-af3804641a245a54e320e1d09ce825c3> for AP:

Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California at Irvine law school, said the outcome is hard to predict. “Many of the things that the bill does are in line with what other states already do, so the question is whether a contraction of voting rights for bad purposes is illegal, even if the contraction does not go as far as some other states (or that Georgia considered),” Hasen wrote in an email.

Courts have made it harder to prove intentional racial discrimination, and “a partisan intent, even if it overlaps with race, may well not be enough,” Hasen said.

State and federal courts, including judges appointed by Trump, widely rejected lawsuits brought by the former president and his supporters challenging the election results.

But Republican-led states have fared better in federal court over other election issues, most notably a ruling last year that forced Florida felons to pay off fines and fees before regaining their right to vote.
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Posted in Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>, Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>

“How the Supreme Court laid the path for Georgia’s new election law”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121343>
Posted on March 28, 2021 4:07 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121343> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Joan Biskupic<https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/27/politics/supreme-court-georgia-voting-law-john-roberts-shelby-county/index.html> for CNN:

Georgia’s voter restrictions<http://www.cnn.com/2021/03/26/politics/georgia-voting-law-food-drink-ban-trnd/index.html> were dashed into law Thursday by Republicans shaken over recent election losses and lies about fraud<http://www.cnn.com/2021/03/26/politics/trump-election-fraud-lie-georgia/index.html> from former President Donald Trump, yet the measures also developed against a backdrop of US Supreme Court decisions hollowing out federal voting rights protection.

In another world, before the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision<https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/25/politics/scotus-voting-rights> written by Chief Justice John Roberts, Georgia would have had to obtain federal approval for new election practices to ensure they did not harm Blacks and other minority voters.And at another time, before the Roberts Court enhanced state latitude in a series of rulings, legislators might have hedged before enacting policies from new voter identification requirements, to a prohibition on third-party collection of ballots to a rule against non-poll workers providing food or water to voters waiting in lines.But the conservative court has increasingly granted states leeway over how they run elections.

That case from Shelby County, Alabama, centered on a provision of the 1965 act that required states with a history of discrimination to seek approval from the Department of Justice or a federal court before changing electoral policy. By a 5-4 vote, the court invalidated the provision that still covered nine states, including Georgia.

“The signal the conservatives on the court have sent is that they are willing to tolerate a lot of partisanship in how elections are run,” said Professor Richard Hasen, at the University of California, Irvine, law school. “The question is whether things will change now that the 2020 elections showed how precarious our election system is and voter confidence is.”
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Posted in Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>, Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>

“Former Trump adviser takes prominent role in voting battle”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121341>
Posted on March 28, 2021 4:04 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121341> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP:<https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/27/former-trump-adviser-takes-prominent-role-voting-battle/115646926/>

A GOP lawyer who advised former President Donald Trump on his campaign to overturn the 2020 election results is now playing a central role coordinating the Republican effort to tighten voting laws around the country.

Cleta Mitchell, a longtime Republican lawyer and advocate for conservative causes, was among the Trump advisers on a January phone call in which Trump asked Georgia election officials to “find” enough votes to declare him, and not Democrat Joe Biden, the winner of the battleground state.

Now Mitchell has taken the helm of two separate efforts to push for tighter state voting laws and to fight Democratic efforts to expand access to the ballot at the federal level. She is also advising state lawmakers crafting the voting restriction proposals. And, she said Friday, she is in regular contact with Trump.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>

“Trump helped the GOP raise $2 billion. Now former aides and allies are jockeying to tap into his fundraising power.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121339>
Posted on March 28, 2021 4:02 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=121339> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo reports.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-gop-money/2021/03/27/fa413606-82a4-11eb-bb5a-ad9a91faa4ef_story.html>
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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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