[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/10/21

[larrylevine at earthlink.net]

Can someone tell my how the State of Arizona can just hand over the ballots to the Republican Party? Can someone tell me if the Democratic Party or the state or some group of citizens concern about the sanctity of their ballots filed suit to block the action and if so why not? Is the state providing staff to oversee the activity to insure the security of the ballots and if so are the Republicans paying the cost of that staffing? I can guarantee that if you gave me the ballots to count after an election candidate would never lose.

Larry

 

From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> On Behalf Of Rick Hasen
Sent: Monday, 10 May 2021 6:59 AM
To: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/10/21

 


 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122063> “Trump 2020 Election Lawsuits Lead to Requests to Discipline Lawyers; Courts, licensing bodies consider whether attorneys abused the legal system in challenging vote results”


Posted on  <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122063> May 10, 2021 6:49 am by  <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

 <https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-2020-election-lawsuits-lead-to-requests-to-discipline-lawyers-11620568801?st=3lb0thf77gpqr22&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink> WSJ reports.

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D122063&title=%E2%80%9CTrump%202020%20Election%20Lawsuits%20Lead%20to%20Requests%20to%20Discipline%20Lawyers%3B%20Courts%2C%20licensing%20bodies%20consider%20whether%20attorneys%20abused%20the%20legal%20system%20in%20challenging%20vote%20results%E2%80%9D> 

Posted in  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1> Uncategorized

 

 


 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122059> “Opinion: Close this FEC loophole that killed the case over Trump’s payment to Stormy Daniels”


Posted on  <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122059> May 10, 2021 6:46 am by  <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub’s WaPo  <https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/09/fec-trump-stormy-daniels-case-ellen-weintraub/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_opinions&utm_campaign=wp_opinions> oped:

But when the FEC’s professional legal staff recommended the commission investigate, two Republican commissioners instead tanked the case without a word about its merits. Since Cohen had already been prosecuted,  <https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/7313/7313_27.pdf> they said, “pursuing these matters further was not the best use of agency resources.”

Now, we’re pretty busy at the FEC, digging out from all the matters that piled up for more than a year while we were short on commissioners — and therefore unable to decide cases.

But are we too busy to enforce the law against the former president of the United States for his brazen violation of federal campaign finance laws on the eve of a presidential election? No.

Would pursuing this matter have been an unwise use of resources? Of course not. Taxpayers entrust us with resources exactly so that we can pursue enforcement in important cases and ensure that no one is above the law. This dismissal of the allegations against Trump is arbitrary, capricious, outrageous and contrary to the law that Congress created the FEC to enforce.

It gets worse. The Republican commissioners’ grossly inadequate justification for dismissal is effectively insulated from review because of the last 13 words of their  <https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/7313/7313_27.pdf> statement: “We voted to dismiss these matters as an exercise of our prosecutorial discretion.” The courts have turned “prosecutorial discretion” into magic words that render any administrative decision invulnerable to appeal.

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D122059&title=%E2%80%9COpinion%3A%20Close%20this%20FEC%20loophole%20that%20killed%20the%20case%20over%20Trump%E2%80%99s%20payment%20to%20Stormy%20Daniels%E2%80%9D> 

Posted in  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24> federal election commission

 

 


 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122057> “Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman blasts Trump-inspired Arizona election audit”


Posted on  <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122057> May 10, 2021 6:42 am by  <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

 <https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/washington-secretary-of-state-kim-wyman-blasts-trump-inspired-arizona-election-audit/> Seattle Times reports.

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D122057&title=%E2%80%9CWashington%20Secretary%20of%20State%20Kim%20Wyman%20blasts%20Trump-inspired%20Arizona%20election%20audit%E2%80%9D> 

Posted in  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1> Uncategorized

 

 


 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122055> “In Arizona, a Troubled Voting Review Plods On as Questions Mount”


Posted on  <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122055> May 10, 2021 6:41 am by  <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

 <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/us/arizona-vote-count-republicans.html> NYT:

Directly outside the Veterans Memorial Coliseum near downtown Phoenix, the <https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2021/04/28/crazy-times-carnival-take-place-same-grounds-election-audit/4876686001/>  Crazy Times Carnival wraps up an 11-day run on Sunday, a spectacle of thrill rides, games and food stands that headlines the Arizona State Fair this year.

Inside the coliseum, a Republican-ordered exhumation and review of 2.1 million votes in the state’s November election is heading into its third week, an exercise that has risen to become the lodestar of rigged-vote theorists — and shows no sign of ending soon.

Arizona’s Secretary of State Katie Hobbs noted the carnival’s presence outside the coliseum when she challenged the competence and objectivity of the review last week, expressing concern about the security of the ballots inside in an apparent dig at what has become a spectacle of a very different sort.

There is no evidence that former President Donald J. Trump’s narrow loss in Arizona’s presidential election in the fall was fraudulent. Nonetheless, 16 Republicans in the State Senate voted to subpoena ballots in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and two-thirds of the state’s vote in November, for an audit to show Trump die-hards that their fraud concerns were taken seriously.

As recently as a week ago, officials said the review would be completed by May 14. But with that deadline a week away, only about 250,000 of the county’s 2.1 million ballots have been processed in the hand recount that is a central part of the review, Ken Bennett, a liaison between those conducting the review and the senators, said on Saturday.

At that rate, the hand recount would not be finished until August.

The delay is but the latest snag in an exercise that many critics claim is wrecking voters’ confidence in elections, not restoring it. Since the State Senate first ordered it in December, the review has been  <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/25/us/Election-audit-Arizona-Republicans.html?searchResultPosition=2> dogged by controversy. Republicans dominate the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which supervised the election in the county. They said it was fair and accurate and opposed the review….

After a week marked by <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/06/us/arizona-vote-count-republicans.html?searchResultPosition=4>  mounting accusations of partisan skulduggery, mismanagement and even potential illegality, at least one Republican supporter of the new count said it could not end soon enough.

“It makes us look like idiots,” State Senator Paul Boyer, a Republican from suburban Phoenix who supported the audit, said on Friday. “Looking back, I didn’t think it would be this ridiculous. It’s embarrassing to be a state senator at this point.”

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D122055&title=%E2%80%9CIn%20Arizona%2C%20a%20Troubled%20Voting%20Review%20Plods%20On%20as%20Questions%20Mount%E2%80%9D> 

Posted in  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8> fraudulent fraud squad

 

 


 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122053> “The making of a myth”


Posted on  <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122053> May 10, 2021 6:38 am by  <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

WaPo deep dive:

Key elements of the baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen from President Donald Trump took shape in an airplane hangar here two years earlier, promoted by a Republican businessman who has sold everything from Tex-Mex food in London to a wellness technology that beams light into the human bloodstream.

At meetings beginning late in 2018, as Republicans were smarting from midterm losses in Texas and across the country, Russell J. Ramsland Jr. and his associates delivered alarming presentations on electronic voting to a procession of conservative lawmakers, activists and donors.

Briefings in the hangar had a clandestine air. Guests were asked to leave their cellphones outside before assembling in a windowless room. A member of Ramsland’s team purporting to be a “white-hat hacker” identified himself only by a code name…

The enduring myth that the 2020 election was rigged was not one claim by one person. It was many claims stacked one atop the other, repeated by a phalanx of Trump allies. This is the previously unreported origin story of a core set of those claims, ideas that were advanced not by renowned experts or by insiders who had knowledge of flawed voting systems but by Ramsland and fellow conservative activists as they pushed a fledgling company, Allied Security Operations Group, into a quixotic attempt to find evidence of widespread fraud where none existed.

To assemble a picture of the company’s role, The Washington Post obtained emails and company documents and interviewed 12people with direct knowledge of ASOG’s efforts, as well as former federal officials and aides from the Trump White House. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private matters or out of fear of retribution. Three individuals who were present in the hangar for those 2018 meetings spoke about the gatherings publicly for the first time.

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D122053&title=%E2%80%9CThe%20making%20of%20a%20myth%E2%80%9D> 

Posted in  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8> fraudulent fraud squad

 

 


 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122051> “GOP’s Voting Curbs Show Long Reach of 2013 Supreme Court Ruling”


Posted on  <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122051> May 10, 2021 6:32 am by  <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

 <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-08/gop-s-voting-curbs-show-long-reach-of-2013-supreme-court-ruling?sref=aUHU1jme&utm_source=url_link> Bloomberg:

Republicans across the U.S. can thank the Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Roberts as they enact the country’s most significant voting restrictions in generations.

The court’s watershed 2013 Shelby County ruling created a glide path for many of election changes  <https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/0120676D:US> GOP-controlled legislatures are pushing this year. The Roberts-written decision wiped out the 1965 Voting Rights Act’s requirement that jurisdictions with a deep history of discrimination get federal preclearance before changing their voting rules.

Texas is poised to join Georgia as a GOP-controlled state using its newfound freedom from that requirement to enact measures that critics say suppress voting by racial minorities. Other states that weren’t subject to preclearance, including Florida, are also passing restrictions, creating a cascade of new voting laws that could boost Republicans in the 2022 and 2024 elections.

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D122051&title=%E2%80%9CGOP%E2%80%99s%20Voting%20Curbs%20Show%20Long%20Reach%20of%202013%20Supreme%20Court%20Ruling%E2%80%9D> 

Posted in  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29> Supreme Court,  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15> Voting Rights Act

 

 


 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122048> Bad Ballot Design in London Mayor’s Race Leads 1 out of 30 Votes Cast to be Rejected


Posted on  <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122048> May 9, 2021 1:49 pm by  <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=7> Richard Pildes

For this race, Londoners used an RCV system, in which they were permitted to rank their first and second choices. But a terrible, confusing ballot design led a significant number of voters to cast a first choice for two different candidates — resulting in their ballots being tossed out. This is a problem of ballot design, not inherent to RCV. But I would not be surprised to see this debacle being used in arguments against RCV. Here’s the ballot:



 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D122048&title=Bad%20Ballot%20Design%20in%20London%20Mayor%E2%80%99s%20Race%20Leads%201%20out%20of%2030%20Votes%20Cast%20to%20be%20Rejected> 

Posted in  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1> Uncategorized

 

 


 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122044> “After Facing Numerous Recall Attempts, Democratic Lawmakers Want To Change Rules”


Posted on  <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122044> May 9, 2021 8:53 am by  <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=7> Richard Pildes

This story is out of Colorado, from the  <https://www.cpr.org/2021/05/06/after-facing-numerous-recall-attempts-democratic-lawmakers-want-to-change-rules/> CPR News. Proponents assert that there are good government reasons for these changes. But the story notes that the vote in committee to report out this bill was on a straight party-line basis.

As voters have installed Democrats in the state’s top offices, conservative activists have increasingly turned to recalls to reverse the blue tide.

Gov. Jared Polis has been  <https://www.cpr.org/2020/11/13/latest-polis-recall-effort-misses-signature-deadline/> the target of two recall efforts, although neither turned in enough signatures to force an election. Groups also  <https://www.cpr.org/2019/08/01/recalls-excite-the-base-but-are-they-the-right-move-for-colorados-gop/> circulated recall petitions against two state senators in 2019, and they threatened to try to recall two representatives, too. Those efforts also fell short of the needed signatures. 

Now, as part of  <http://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb21-250> a larger election law “clean up” bill, lawmakers could change some of the rules for future recalls.

If the bill becomes law, recall petitions would be required to include an estimated cost of conducting a special election, as well as a statement from the official being targeted for recall, if they provide one.

“This is a big, disruptive force in our democratic process. I think it’s important that voters have, maybe not the full picture, but at least a sentence from both sides,” said Sen. Majority Leader Steve Fenburg, one of the bill’s sponsors. “It’s really just to make sure the information is out there, in that these recall efforts are being used for legitimate purposes and not for purely routine political attacks.”

The bill also bans recall efforts against an official whose office will be up for election within six months.

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D122044&title=%E2%80%9CAfter%20Facing%20Numerous%20Recall%20Attempts%2C%20Democratic%20Lawmakers%20Want%20To%20Change%20Rules%E2%80%9D> 

Posted in  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1> Uncategorized

 

 


 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122042> Why Puerto Rican House Members Are Divided Over Puerto Rican Statehood


Posted on  <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122042> May 8, 2021 7:57 am by  <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=7> Richard Pildes

Given the intense politics within Puerto Rico over statehood v. commonwealth status, it is rare to find journalistic stories that capture well the positions in this debate. This  <https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/colonialism-or-democracy> long essay from Ben Jacobs at the DC Examiner is one of the best efforts to do so I’ve read recently. A strength of the piece is the way it links the political dynamics within Puerto Rico to the surprising politics within the mainland political parties, particularly the Democratic Party.

Here’s a couple small excerpts, but those interested in the issue should read the full piece;

So, what’s the holdup? Some of the most ardent opposition to Puerto Rican statehood comes from the Left.

It may seem counterintuitive, but the debate over Puerto Rico’s status has become a primarily intra-Democratic fight, one that doesn’t fall along neat ideological lines and divides the four Democrats of Puerto Rican heritage within the caucus. Darren Soto of Florida and Ritchie Torres of New York support it, while  <https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/alexandria-ocasio-cortez?utm_campaign=autolink&utm_source=internal&utm_medium=autolink> Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nydia Velazquez, both of New York, oppose the proposals….

Instead, the battlefield shifted to two competing bills on Capitol Hill. The first would grant Puerto Rico statehood after one final, binding referendum, along the same model through which Alaska and Hawaii were admitted to the union in the 1950s. The second is more amorphous. It is entitled  <https://velazquez.house.gov/sites/velazquez.house.gov/files/VELAZQ_043_xml_3_18_21.pdf> the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act and would create a “semi-permanent” status convention to which Puerto Ricans would elect delegates in order to negotiate with a congressional commission on the island’s future. The results would be subject to a ranked-choice referendum in which every option except the status quo would be on the ballot and would purportedly bind Congress to the result….

However, opponents of the statehood bill see the vote as illegitimate, a ploy by statehood supporters that did not offer the full range of options to vote. In an April hearing on the topic held by the House Committee on Natural Resources, Velazquez argued, “This should be about a process that respects the will of the people, not try to stack the deck or use millions of dollars to skew the outcome.”…

A convention process, in contrast, would allow a broad, free-ranging discussion about a variety of status options ranging from statehood to independence. “Self-determination in Puerto Rico shouldn’t come down to a simple ballot referendum,”  <https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1390017311466311682?s=20> tweeted Ocasio-Cortez on May 5, calling it “a process that states use to resolve questions like dog racing or cannabis & are easily challenged. Determination of status, citizenship, and decolonization merit a constitutional convention.” The problem is that there really are not a lot of options available.

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D122042&title=Why%20Puerto%20Rican%20House%20Members%20Are%20Divided%20Over%20Puerto%20Rican%20Statehood> 

Posted in  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1> Uncategorized

 

 


 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122038> “Republicans continue their nationwide campaign to restrict voting”


Posted on  <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122038> May 7, 2021 4:27 pm by  <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

 <https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/07/politics/voting-rights-florida-texas/index.html> Fredreka Schouten for CNN:

Republicans in key states intensified their push to roll back access to the ballot this week — with the GOP-led Texas House passing new voting limits Friday, a day after Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law an array of new restrictions in his state.

Republicans in the Texas House pushed past  <https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/04/politics/businesses-texas-voting-restrictions/index.html> objections from corporate giants such as American Airlines and Microsoft, and fierce protests from Democratic lawmakers and voting rights advocates.The vote came after an often-heated debate on the floor of the Texas House with Democratic lawmakers pressing the bill’s author, GOP Rep. Briscoe Cain, to cite examples of the election fraud the bill sought to prevent.”We don’t need to wait for bad things to happen” to take action, Cain responded at one point/

The vote moves Texas closer to joining a host of other states racing to change the ground rules for future elections, following former President Donald Trump’s repeated and unfounded claims that voter fraud contributed to his loss last November. Around the country, Republicans have cast their effort as needed to restore voter confidence in the integrity of elections. But critics say the nationwide push aims to retain GOP power in key battlegrounds by making it harder for people of color and younger voters to cast their ballots.

There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D122038&title=%E2%80%9CRepublicans%20continue%20their%20nationwide%20campaign%20to%20restrict%20voting%E2%80%9D> 

Posted in  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60> The Voting Wars

 

 


 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122036> “Arizona’s dangerous vote audit includes a hunt for bamboo”


Posted on  <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122036> May 7, 2021 11:28 am by  <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

New Josh Douglas CNN  <https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/07/opinions/arizona-dangerous-audit-destabilize-democracy-douglas/index.html> oped.

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D122036&title=%E2%80%9CArizona%E2%80%99s%20dangerous%20vote%20audit%20includes%20a%20hunt%20for%20bamboo%E2%80%9D> 

Posted in  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8> fraudulent fraud squad

 

 


 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122034> “Texas GOP’s voting restrictions bill could be rewritten behind closed doors after key House vote”


Posted on  <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122034> May 7, 2021 10:42 am by  <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

 <https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/07/texas-voting-restrictions/> Alexa Ura for Texas Tribune:

As opposition to Texas Republicans’ proposed voting restrictions  <https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/04/texas-voting-restrictions/> continues to intensify, state lawmakers’ deliberations over the  <https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/22/texas-republicans-voting-restrictions/> GOP priority legislation could soon go behind closed doors.

The House early Friday voted 81-64 to advance a pared down version of  <https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=87R&Bill=SB7> Senate Bill 7, leaving out various far-reaching voting restrictions that have prompted  <https://www.texastribune.org/2021/04/09/Texas-voting-GOP-suppression/> widespread outcry from voting rights advocates, advocates for people with disabilities, and local officials in the state’s biggest counties. The legislation still contains some provisions opposed by those groups — including a prohibition on counties sending  <https://www.texastribune.org/2021/04/08/texas-elections-vote-by-mail-applications/> unsolicited applications to vote by mail.

Facing more than 130 proposed amendments from Democrats late Thursday — and a procedural challenge that could have delayed the entire bill’s consideration — lawmakers huddled off the chamber’s floor throughout the night to cut a deal and rework SB 7 through a flurry of amendments passed without objection from either party.

But the final contours of the bill remain uncertain.

The bill will need a second House vote, expected later Friday, before it can head back to the Senate. It will then likely go to a conference committee made up of members of both chambers who will be able to pull from both iterations of the legislation in crafting the final version largely outside public view.

SB 7 has emerged as the main legislative vehicle for changing the state’s voting rules, though the versions passed in each chamber differ significantly.

As passed in the Senate, the legislation restricted early voting rules and schedules to do away with extended hours and ban drive-thru voting. It also required large counties to redistribute polling places under a formula that could move sites away from areas with more Hispanic and Black residents.

Those and other provisions fell off when it was reconstituted in the House Elections Committee, with little notice and without a public hearing, to match the House’s priorities contained in  <https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=87R&Bill=HB6> House Bill 6.

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D122034&title=%E2%80%9CTexas%20GOP%E2%80%99s%20voting%20restrictions%20bill%20could%20be%20rewritten%20behind%20closed%20doors%20after%20key%20House%20vote%E2%80%9D> 

Posted in  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1> Uncategorized

 

 


 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122032> “‘Belonging Is Stronger Than Facts’: The Age of Misinformation; Social and psychological forces are combining to make the sharing and believing of misinformation an endemic problem with no easy solution.”


Posted on  <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122032> May 7, 2021 9:46 am by  <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

 <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/world/asia/misinformation-disinformation-fake-news.html> NYT talks with Brendan Nyhan.

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D122032&title=%E2%80%9C%E2%80%98Belonging%20Is%20Stronger%20Than%20Facts%E2%80%99%3A%20The%20Age%20of%20Misinformation%3B%20Social%20and%20psychological%20forces%20are%20combining%20to%20make%20the%20sharing%20and%20believing%20of%20misinformation%20an%20endemic%20problem%20with%20no%20easy%20solution.%E2%80%9D> 

Posted in  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1> Uncategorized

 

 


 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122030> Sounds Like Joe Manchin, in Negotiating on Voting Rights Bill, Wants Preclearance Expanded to All 50 States


Posted on  <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122030> May 7, 2021 8:03 am by  <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

 <https://www.theintermountain.com/news/local-news/2021/05/manchin-working-on-compromise-on-voting-rights-package/> Interesting report:

A former two-term governor of West Virginia and a former secretary of state, the chief elections officer in West Virginia, Manchin said he sees the need for some changes. However, he also believes the authority for managing elections needs to remain at the state and local level.

Manchin said any election reform effort needs to focus on three key areas.

“The main thing is, being a former governor and a former secretary of state, we should have accessibility at the polling place, you should have fairness in the voting process, and it should be secured,” Manchin said. “Those three things have to be done.”

One part of For the People Manchin likes is the restoration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Act was gutted in 2013 in a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Manchin and others have tried to restore the Voting Rights Act through the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, named for the late civil rights leader and Georgia congressman John Lewis. The most recent version of the bill passed the House in 2019, but the Senate version of the bill died in committee in 2020.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Act would restore the original Voting Rights Act to ensure any changes to state election laws do not violate the civil rights of minorities and people of color. Many states have started making changes to voting laws in the wake of the November 2020 elections, believing without evidence that the election was stolen from former president Donald Trump. Election rights advocated believe those changes could make it more difficult for people to register and vote.

“We already have the John L. Lewis (Voting Rights Act),” Manchin said. “We should basically expand the John L. Lewis Voting Act to all 50 states, not just to those that we designate, and protect the voters. Those are the main things that we should be doing.”

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D122030&title=Sounds%20Like%20Joe%20Manchin%2C%20in%20Negotiating%20on%20Voting%20Rights%20Bill%2C%20Wants%20Preclearance%20Expanded%20to%20All%2050%20States> 

Posted in  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1> Uncategorized

 

 

 

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Rick Hasen

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UC Irvine School of Law

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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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