[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/20/21

[Rick Hasen]

“January 6 commission vote: Prospects bleak that 10 Republicans would buck McConnell”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122223>
Posted on May 20, 2021 7:54 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122223> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CNN<https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/20/politics/senate-vote-republicans-january-6-commission/index.html>:

After the House passed a bill to establish a commission <http://www.cnn.com/2021/05/19/politics/house-vote-january-6-commission/index.html> to investigate the events surrounding January 6, Senate Republicans look poised to torpedo the commission with few Republicans signaling they’d vote with Democrats to support it.Democrats would need 10 Republican lawmakers to buck their leadership, join Democrats and spend the next several months diving further into the events that shook the Capitol<https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/27/politics/capitol-riot-400-charged-justice-department/index.html> four months ago.

The bottom line: In the last three days, the shift among Senate Republicans here has been rapid with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell laying the groundwork to educate his members on what he views as potential shortcomings <http://www.cnn.com/2021/05/18/politics/gop-infighting-january-6-commission-kevin-mccarthy/index.html> and pitfalls of another investigative body. The evolution here has been swift and to underscore that, look no further than two GOP senators from South Dakota. On Monday, Sens. Mike Rounds and John Thune seemed open to a potential commission<http://www.cnn.com/2021/05/17/politics/republican-reaction-capitol-hill-riot-commission/index.html>. In the days that have followed, they’ve made it clear they are far more likely now to vote no.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“Thanks to Kobach, Trump and conservative think tank, we know extent of voter fraud “<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122221>
Posted on May 20, 2021 7:50 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122221> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Charles Hammer column<https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/community/joco-913/joco-diversions/article251485983.html> in the KC Star:

We Kansans owe Kris Kobach warm thanks for his greatest triumph: He proved that voter fraud is virtually nonexistent in our state. He achieved that by fiercely striving to prove the opposite.

In 2010 he got himself elected as Kansas secretary of state, then won legislative authority to prosecute illegal voters — a power no equivalent state official elsewhere holds.

Kobach recently filed to run for Kansas attorney general in the next election.

So how many fraudulent voters did Kobach’s dragnet convict during his eight-year tenure in office? Just nine. Nine convictions in a state with nearly 2 million registered voters. Among those were older citizens who mistakenly voted in two different places where they owned property.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Trump allies seek to import Arizona’s election audit to Georgia”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122219>
Posted on May 20, 2021 7:44 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122219> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CNN:<https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/19/politics/trump-allies-seek-more-audits/index.html?utm_term=link&utm_content=2021-05-20T00%3A34%3A05&utm_source=twCNNp&utm_medium=social>

In a bid to bolster former President Donald Trump’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election, Trump’s Republican allies are now seeking Arizona-style audits<https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/18/politics/arizona-republican-audit-database-not-deleted/index.html> in other swing states — including Georgia, where the former President’s false claims have set off an intraparty war.

A day after Trump said in a statement that Georgia should follow Arizona’s lead, former Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones, a Trump supporter who is challenging incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in next year’s GOP primary, proposed an audit Wednesday.”

Georgians still have questions about irregularities found in the 2020 election and they deserve answers,” he said in a statement. “We must get to the bottom of all of this and other irregularities to restore trust in our election process. If Mr. Kemp refuses to demand an audit, then I will when I am elected to replace him.”

Jones’ characterization of the election was false: Georgia has already tallied the results to confirm Biden’s victory there three times and conducted an audit of absentee ballot signatures. The state found no evidence of fraud<https://www.ajc.com/politics/no-fraud-georgia-audit-confirms-authenticity-of-absentee-ballots/QF2PTOGHLNDLNDJEWBU56WEQHM/>, and Kemp and other Republican state officials have backed the findings.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


“With election reform stalled, Senate should prioritize anti-gerrymandering”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122217>
Posted on May 20, 2021 7:42 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122217> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Kevin Johnson oped<https://thefulcrum.us/redistricting/partisan-gerrymandering-2653040726> at The Fulcrum.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Inspired by Arizona recount, Trump loyalists push to revisit election results in communities around the country”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122215>
Posted on May 19, 2021 5:39 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122215> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-false-claims-fallout/2021/05/19/87aeacc4-b7f9-11eb-a6b1-81296da0339b_story.html>

At a public meeting last week in Cheboygan County, Mich., a lawyer from Detroit told county commissioners that the voting machines they used in 2020 could “flip” votes and throw an election. She offered to send in a “forensic team,” at no charge to the county, to inspect ballots and scanners.

In Windham, N.H., supporters of former president Donald Trump showed up to a town meeting this month chanting “Stop the Steal!” and demanding that officials choose their preferred auditor to scrutinize a 400-vote discrepancy in a state representative race.

And at a board of supervisors meeting May 4 in San Luis Obispo County, on California’s Central Coast, scores of residents questioned whether election machines had properly counted their votes, with many demanding a “forensic audit.”

The ramifications of Trump’s ceaseless attacks on the 2020 election are increasingly visible throughout the country: In emails, phone calls and public meetings, his supporters are questioning how their elections are administered and pressing public officials to revisit the vote count — wrongly insisting that Trump won the presidential race.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


“Pro-Trump OAN Reporters Are Blatantly Raising Money For A Bogus Election ‘Audit’ In Arizona”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122212>
Posted on May 19, 2021 4:30 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122212> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

BuzzFeed:<https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahmimms/arizona-election-results-oan-reporters-fundraising?mkt_tok=NTU2LVlFRS05NjkAAAF9JFN2W63CKVNJMUXBG1arKlqgGIPyh0-E9ElwImqgIcbNrh9tLWraxU5D0YeJwILCmRuK6KeC4oP84MTHZEBscQATyLxB5Tc6ld-eNZ2INhd0>

Two reporters at One America News, a far-right TV station, are running a dark money organization that they say is helping fund a counter-reality “audit” that former president Donald Trump and his supporters believe will overturn Arizona’s 2020 election results in his favor.

What’s more, one of those reporters, Christina Bobb, is the network’s most visible correspondent covering the very “audit” that she is helping scare up money for on OAN’s airwaves, while she and the network enjoy unique access to the process where private contractors and volunteers are searching for fraud and have examined ballots for nonexistent watermarks and “bamboo fibers.” OAN has a deal as the exclusive livestream partner for the audit.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


“Lawmakers are targeting the courts that could shoot down voter suppression laws”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122210>
Posted on May 19, 2021 10:48 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122210> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Patrick Berry and Alicia Bannon WaPo Outlook piece<https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/05/19/voter-suppression-laws-states/>:

By the Brennan Center for Justice’s count, state lawmakers have introduced more than 360 voter suppression bills<https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-march-2021> across the nation, and the aim seems clear: Despite rhetorical nods to protecting “election integrity<https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-general-elections-virginia-elections-voting-495f43e4a5d5bbf049cc7c4fc008969b>,” it’s a collective Republican effort to suppress the vote in future elections. As Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic minority leader of the Georgia state House explains<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/24/stacey-abrams-republicans-voter-suppression-interview>, these bills “are responding to the big lie, to the disproven, discredited and, sadly, the blood-spilled lie of voter fraud.”

But not only are states trying to restrict access to the ballot box, in many instances, they’re also trying to make it harder for voters to protect their rights in court.

A new Brennan Center analysis<https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/legislative-assaults-state-courts-2021> identified at least 93 bills in 26 states introduced this year that threaten judicial independence by limiting courts’ power or injecting more politics into state judiciaries. According to the analysis, in at least eight of these states, bills have specifically targeted election-related cases. And in 21 states, broader court bills were introduced that would impact election cases, among others, by changing how judges are selected, which courts hear cases challenging the constitutionality of state actions or how judicial decisions are enforced. It’s a dangerous trend that leaves voting rights at risk and undermines a critical check against abuses of power during our elections.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Elected-Official-Affiliated Nonprofits: Closing the Public Integrity Gap”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122208>
Posted on May 19, 2021 8:37 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122208> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Richard Briffault has posted this draft <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3843923&dgcid=ejournal_htmlemail_columbia:law:school,:public:law:legal:theory:research:paper:series_abstractlink> on SSRN (forthcoming Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy). Here is the abstract:

Recent years have witnessed the growing use by elected officials, particularly state and local chief executives, of affiliated nonprofit organizations to advance their policy goals. Some of these organizations engage in public advocacy to advance a governor’s or mayor’s legislative program. Others operate more like conventional charities, raising philanthropic support for a range of governmental social welfare programs. Elected officials fundraise for these organizations, which are often staffed by close associates of those elected officials, and the organizations’ public communications frequently feature prominently the name or likeness of their elected-official sponsor. As these organizations do not engage in electioneering, they operate outside election law, and as they do not personally enrich their sponsors, they are usually not covered by ethics restrictions. Yet, due to their close connection to elected officials, their fundraising raises the same concerns of official favoritism or the appearance of such favoritism to donors that lie at the heart of public integrity law.

This article examines the rise of elected official affiliated nonprofits, the public integrity gap revealed by their activities. It presents proposals that would close that gap by requiring transparency and restricting pay to play donations, and considers the constitutional questions that likely would be raised by these proposals, The proliferation of elected-official-affiliated groups demonstrates that the connections between the elected officials and their supportive committees are real, as are the possibilities for undue influence and its appearance. It is past time to close the public integrity gap. Targeted disclosure requirements and limitations on pay to play donors are constitutionally appropriate mechanisms for doing so.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


Michigan: “GOP bills would embolden challengers and create election chaos, voting rights advocates say”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122206>
Posted on May 19, 2021 8:32 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122206> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Detroit Free Press:<https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2021/05/19/gop-bills-propose-new-rights-poll-watchers-election-challengers/5094647001/>

A series of Republican bills<https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/03/24/michigan-senate-gop-election-reform-laws/6963314002/> that would dramatically expand the rights of poll watchers and election challengers would burden election administrators<https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2021/04/09/michigan-republicans-election-bills/4826846001/>, cause delays for voters at polling locations, open the door to voter intimidation and re-create the chaos that unfolded last fall at Detroit’s TCF Center<https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2020/11/06/tcf-center-detroit-ballot-counting/6173577002/> in future elections, according to election officials and voting rights advocates.

Chris Thomas<https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/08/detroit-elections-fraud-misconduct-allegations-senate-hearing/6489804002/>, who served as the Michigan director of elections for more than 30 years under Democratic and Republican secretaries of state, said the legislation introduced by Michigan’s Senate Republicans is seriously flawed.

“They are terrible bills that are really written without forethought as to the result and really are written to satisfy one party’s faction,” he said.

The GOP bills would significantly increase the number of challengers who can observe elections while eliminating nonpartisan challengers, allow poll watchers and challengers to film and photograph inside polling locations and counting rooms, and invite election monitors to challenge a voter’s ID, among other changes. Election officials and voting rights advocates warn that the changes would embolden challengers and embed partisan hostility and mistrust in the election process.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“Column: Trump couldn’t steal the election in 2020. His allies are laying the groundwork to try again”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122204>
Posted on May 19, 2021 7:51 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122204> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Doyle McManus LAT column<https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-05-19/trump-tried-to-steal-the-presidential-election-of-2020-his-allies-are-laying-the-groundwork-to-try-again>.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“I watched the GOP’s Arizona election audit. It was worse than you think.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122202>
Posted on May 19, 2021 7:16 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122202> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Jennifer Morrell<https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/05/19/gop-arizona-election-audit/> for WaPo Outlook:

When Arizona’s secretary of state asked me whether I would serve as an observer of the Arizona Senate’s audit of Maricopa County’s ballots, I anticipated that I would see some unusual things. Post-election audits and recounts are almost always conducted under the authority of local election officials, who have years of knowledge and experience. The idea of a government handing over control of ballots to an outside group, as the state Senate did when hiring a Florida contractor with no elections experience<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/arizona-recount-cyber-ninjas/2021/04/16/b3cbbf08-996e-11eb-962b-78c1d8228819_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_2>, was bizarre. This firm, Cyber Ninjas<https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/26/republicans-arizona-vote-audit-florida-484737>, insisted that it would recount and examine all 2.1 million ballots<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-arizona-recount/2021/04/29/bcd8d832-a798-11eb-bca5-048b2759a489_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_2> cast in the county in the 2020 general election.

So I expected it to be unconventional. But it was so much worse than that. In more than a decade working on elections, audits and recounts across the country, I’ve never seen one this mismanaged.

I arrived at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on the morning of May 4. Security was conspicuously high: At three stations, guards checked my ID and my letter from the secretary of state. No bags were permitted on the floor, and I had to surrender my phone, laptop and smartwatch. I was allowed a yellow legal pad and red pen to take notes, and provided with a pink T-shirt to wear so I would be immediately identifiable. The audit observers hired by Cyber Ninjas, in orange T-shirts, followed me wherever I went and reported random things about me they found suspicious. Several times someone asked to test my pen, to ensure it really had red ink. Once, they even demanded that I empty my pockets, in which I carried that pen and a pair of reading glasses. I was allowed only to ask procedural questions of the Cyber Ninjas attorney; I couldn’t talk to anyone else performing the work. The atmosphere was tense.

I was stunned to see spinning conveyor wheels, whizzing hundreds of ballots past “counters,” who struggled to mark, on a tally sheet, each voter’s selection for the presidential and Senate races. They had only a few seconds to record what they saw. Occasionally, I saw a counter look up, realize they missed a ballot and then grab the wheel to stop it. This process sets them up to make so many mistakes, I kept thinking. Humans are terrible at tedious, repetitive tasks; we’re especially bad at counting. That’s why, in all the other audits I’ve seen, bipartisan teams follow a tallying method that allows for careful review and inspection of each ballot, followed by a verification process. I’d never seen an audit use contraptions to speed up the process.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“The Jolt: Brad Raffensperger: ‘Yes, I’m running again’”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122200>
Posted on May 19, 2021 6:59 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122200> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

News<https://www.ajc.com/politics/politics-blog/the-jolt-brad-raffensperger-yes-im-running-again/YV62ZE4ARRBQTAAW4SCGIDNRLU/?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_2357530> from Georgia.

And he sounded more like an Attorney General when he pointed to the rule of law as the most essential element in the American democratic process.

“Now I’ve lived it and I can tell you it’s very important to the very fabric of society and us as Americans,” he said. “When the time came to choose I had to make a decision. And I came down on the side of the rule of law.”

He said he also understood that other Republicans were surprised and disappointed when the votes were counted in 2020.

“But we can’t let making the right call to defend the Republic be punished…for doing their jobs, basically following the law, following the process.”

The state’s chief elections officer also defended Senate Bill 202, the state’s new election law, specifically the new absentee voter ID requirements, which he called objective instead of subjective, and the move to shorten the state’s previous nine-week runoff process.

“Why are we changing? To help restore confidence, wherever we can shore up confidence, because this thing didn’t just happen in 2020. It happened in 2018 and goes back to 2016 when Donald Trump talked about ‘Russian collusion.’”
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“A Kentucky Surprise: Bipartisan Reforms to Ease Voting”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122198>
Posted on May 19, 2021 6:57 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122198> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Miles Rapoport and Cecily Hines for TAP.<https://prospect.org/politics/kentucky-surprise-bipartisan-reforms-to-ease-voting/>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Breyer Worries Retiring Could Add to Polarization. Would It?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122196>
Posted on May 18, 2021 4:03 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122196> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT analysis.<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/us/politics/will-breyer-retire-supreme-court.html>
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Posted in political polarization<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=68>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“Deregulated Redistricting”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122194>
Posted on May 18, 2021 3:37 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122194> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Travis Crum has posted this important draft<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3847829> on SSRN (forthcoming, Cornell Law Review), which synthesizes the great changes to redistricting doctrine over the last decade. Here is the abstract:

From the civil rights movement through the Obama administration, each successive redistricting cycle involved ever-greater regulation of the mapmaking process. But in the past decade, the Supreme Court has re-written the ground rules for redistricting. For the first time in fifty years, Southern States will redistrict free of the preclearance process that long protected minorities from having their political power diminished. Political parties can now openly engage in egregious partisan gerrymandering.

The Court has withdrawn from the political thicket on every front except race. In so doing, the Court has engaged in decision-making that is both activist and restrained, but the end result is a deregulated redistricting process. This tactical retreat, however, has left more questions that it has answered. In light of these decisions, the question whether redistricting plans are discriminating on the basis of race or partisanship is more important than ever. The long-standing practice of redistricting based on total population is up for grabs, as conservative activists push to use citizen voting age population as the relevant denominator for equalizing districts. Doubts about the constitutionality of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act have grown.

This Article canvasses the redistricting decisions of the 2010s and forecasts how they will impact the 2020 redistricting cycle. Instead of treating each redistricting decision in isolation, this Article synthesizes the relevant cases, predicts how they will interact, and answers unresolved questions. In short, it puts the pieces of the redistricting puzzle together. Thus, this Article provides a comprehensive guide to the upcoming redistricting process for mapmakers, lawyers, judges, and scholars.
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“Arizona Audit’s Major Procedural Flaws Will Create Conflict With Official Tally”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122191>
Posted on May 18, 2021 9:58 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122191> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Steven Rosenfeld:<https://www.nationalmemo.com/arizona-audit--2653017048>

But the audit has proceeded at Phoenix’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum. As details emerge from the arena’s floor, it appears the hand count of presidential and U.S. Senate votes from Maricopa County will likely produce results that diverge from the county’s official 2020 results<https://recorder.maricopa.gov/electionarchives/2020/11-03-2020-1%20Final%20Official%20Summary%20Report%20NOV2020.pdf>, where Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by 45,109 votes or 2.16 percent. (Statewide, Biden won by 10,457 votes<https://billmoyers.com/story/arizona-gop-may-force-a-count-of-millions-of-2020-presidential-ballots/>.) The reason for the probable discrepancy is not the hyper-partisanship surrounding the Senate’s audit, but because the hand count is imprecise at key junctures.

Our assessment is based on time spent as a floor observer on May 6 and 7, which included strict limits on interviews (for instance, only being allowed to speak with Cyber Ninjas’ attorney or designated technicians). Our conclusion is also based on a review of state and county election procedure rules and guidelines, and consultations with outside lawyers specializing in post-election procedures and other observers allowed in the tightly watched coliseum.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Republicans eye new House majority through redistricting”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122188>
Posted on May 18, 2021 6:12 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122188> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Hill:<https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/554002-republicans-eye-new-house-majority-through-redistricting>

Republican state legislators see this year’s decennial redistricting process as a prime opportunity to gain House seats in next year’s midterms — with some believing those gains alone can help the GOP take back the majority.

Legislators are preparing for the most public redistricting process in American history. Both Democrats and Republicans stand ready to accuse each other of radical gerrymandering, while advances in technology give each side the chance to draw ideal districts that are both pleasing to the eye and politically favorable.

Republicans start with an advantage.

Their party will hold complete power over the redistricting process in 20 states that collectively send 188 members to the House, including Nebraska’s ostensibly nonpartisan state Senate, which is in practice run by Republicans.

Democrats will control the process in seven states that send 72 members to the House. Districts in 16 other states are drawn either by independent commissions or by divided government. The seven remaining states send only one at-large member to the House.

The GOP’s level of control, especially in critical battleground states, may be sufficient to gain the five extra seats they would need to reclaim the majority.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Montana’s new voting laws violate Native Americans’ rights, a lawsuit argues.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122186>
Posted on May 18, 2021 6:09 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122186> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/us/politics/montana-native-americans-voting-lawsuit.html>

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Native American Rights Fund filed a lawsuit<https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/complaint_western_native_voice_v._jacobsen.pdf> on Monday challenging two new election laws in Montana as unconstitutional infringements on Native Americans’ right to vote.

Montana legislators enacted the laws — H.B. 176, which eliminated same-day voter registration, and H.B. 530, which restricted ballot collection — this spring, amid a national Republican push<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/us/politics/disinformation-voting-laws.html> to tighten voting regulations in connection with President Donald J. Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

The lawsuit argues that the measures in Montana, where an estimated 6.5 percent<http://opi.mt.gov/Portals/182/Page%20Files/Indian%20Education/Indian%20Education%20101/Montana%20Indians%20Their%20History%20and%20Location.pdf> of the population is Native American and district courts struck down another ballot collection restriction last year, are “part of a broader scheme” to disenfranchise Native voters. It argues that the laws violate the right to vote, freedom of speech and equal protection under the Montana Constitution.

“The legislature knows that Native Americans are very distant from registration opportunities,” said Jacqueline De León, a staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund. “They know that they have a very limited window to register and vote on the reservation, and they know that so many homes don’t receive residential mail delivery, and so they are again, I think, taking advantage of those barriers and amplifying them.”
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Election 2020 and Beyond: Quantifying Litigation Surrounding the Presidential Election Part I”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122184>
Posted on May 18, 2021 6:05 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122184> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Juris Lab:<https://thejurislab.com/election-2020-part-i/>

Courts were involved in the 2020 election debacle like never before. Voting, a right that appears clear and self-explanatory on its face, reached a new level of complexity with various laws that placed restrictions on who can vote, how, and when. Judges stepped in in hundreds of instances to clarify the laws that were constitutional and to strike down laws that violated the Constitution. As with any legal issue that affects the nation, judges had differential roles based on their geographic locations. This post looks at pre-election voting related litigation by analyzing the major players and the hotbeds of litigation. It also looks at where the next epicenters in voting rights litigation may be located….
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Arizona Republicans fight back against election fraud claims”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122182>
Posted on May 18, 2021 6:02 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122182> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP:<https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-arizona-election-recounts-election-2020-elections-2c967181998d1f514525f6f1953bf36e>

The top Republicans in Arizona’s largest county gave an impassioned defense of their handling of the 2020 election Monday, calling on fellow members of the GOP and business leaders to speak out against an unprecedented partisan election audit.

The GOP-dominated Maricopa County Board of Supervisors cast the audit as a sham that’s spun out of the control of the state Senate leader who’s ostensibly overseeing it. Board Chairman Jack Sellers said Senate President Karen Fann is making an “attempt at legitimatizing a grift disguised as an audit.”
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


“Manchin, Murkowski call on Congress to reauthorize Voting Rights Act”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122180>
Posted on May 17, 2021 1:19 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122180> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NBC News<https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/manchin-murkowski-call-congress-reauthorize-voting-rights-act-n1267644>:

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, wrote a letter<https://www.manchin.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/210517%20Bipartisan%20Voting%20Rights%20Act%20Reauthorization%20Letter.pdf?cb> Monday calling on Congress to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act, seeking to jump-start a debate on a bipartisan path to bolstering voting access.

“Protecting Americans’ access to democracy has not been a partisan issue for the past 56 years, and we must not allow it to become one now,” they wrote to the top four congressional leaders.

While the letter didn’t name the bill, a Manchin aide said the senators are referring to the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which aims to require states with a recent record of discrimination in voting rights to get federal pre-approval before changing their election laws.

The Supreme Court in 2013 gutted the formula established by Congress to determine which states are subject to the rule, calling it outdated. The issue has since languished on Capitol Hill, with Republicans uninterested in re-establishing a “preclearance” requirement, and GOP-led states around the country moving to pass restrictive voting laws.

The Manchin-Murkowski letter is designed to show that there is some bipartisan support for the cause of protecting voting rights.

It comes as Manchin faces progressive criticism for being the lone Democratic holdout<https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/democrats-sweeping-election-overhaul-bill-hits-roadblock-tie-vote-senate-n1267042> on the “For The People Act,” a sweeping bill that aims to allow more ballot access and that all states must follow. The Democratic-controlled House approved that bill but it hasn’t taken up the bill named for John Lewis.

Manchin has insisted that any attempt to overhaul federal voting laws have support from both parties.
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Posted in Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>


“Google, Deloitte, and Citigroup quietly collaborate with GOP group pushing voter suppression”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122178>
Posted on May 17, 2021 1:09 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122178> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Popular Information:<https://popular.info/p/google-deloitte-and-citigroup-quietly?r=1ftto&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=twitter>

Several large corporations that have recently issued public statements supporting voting rights — including Google, Deloitte, and Citigroup — are also funding and collaborating with a top Republican group advocating for new voter suppression laws. Internal documents obtained by Popular Information and Documented reveal the corporations participated in a “policy working group” on “election integrity” with the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), a party organization that is actively supporting new voter suppression bills. Participation in the roundtable required a minimum annual contribution of $15,000 to the RSLC.

For example, on March 31, Google’s SVP for Global Affairs, Kent Walker tweeted<https://twitter.com/Kent_Walker/status/1377365732426612736> that the company is “concerned about efforts to restrict voting at a local level” and “strongly support[s] the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.”

A week later, Google’s State Policy Manager, Joe Dooley, was listed as a participant in a private RSLC policy working group led by the organization’s “Election Integrity Committee.” The April 6 presentation, obtained by Popular Information and Documented, details an array of proposals to suppress voting, including purging of voting lists, more stringent voter ID requirements, and targeting of voting centers. The RSLC also opposes any federal action to protect voting rights<https://twitter.com/RSLC/status/1392223068534231042>. The meeting was run by Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill (R), who has embraced Trump’s lies and conspiracies about election fraud.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Lawsuit seeks to stop local election takeovers in Georgia voting law”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122176>
Posted on May 17, 2021 1:02 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122176> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AJC:<https://www.ajc.com/politics/lawsuit-seeks-to-stop-local-election-takeovers-in-georgia-voting-law/WXE3YQHEHZEKZCPHQBBB7DA2N4/>

An election integrity organization sued over Georgia’s voting law Monday, challenging provisions that allow state takeovers of local elections, shorten absentee ballot deadlines and change absentee ID requirements.

The case is the seventh federal lawsuit<https://www.ajc.com/politics/lawsuit-says-georgia-voting-law-discriminates-against-black-voters/MLCYFBY63FEXRLSWBTWEISTTDQ/> trying to throw out parts of the voting law. It was filed by the Coalition for Good Governance, five county election board members and several voters.ExploreHow Georgia’s voting law works<https://www.ajc.com/politics/how-georgias-new-voting-law-works/GF6PLR44PNESPKR5FXCBE7VEOY/>

The lawsuit opposes allowing the State Election Board to replace county election boards<https://www.ajc.com/politics/georgia-bill-would-shift-power-over-elections-to-gop-appointees/VPNVO2W4TBBTFKGA7Z2GZIEQEE/> after performance reviews. A temporary county election superintendent appointed by the majority-Republican board would have broad authority to certify elections, fire staff, decide on voting locations, spend tax money and set policy.

“The takeover provisions are so egregious and dangerous to every concept of free and fair elections that they must be stricken from the law before they undermine Georgia’s elections,” said Marilyn Marks, executive director for the Coalition for Good Governance.

The litigation also takes issue with “impractical” absentee ballot deadlines that require voters to request a ballot at least 11 days before an election, leaving little time to vote by mail in runoffs. The voting law shortened the period<https://www.ajc.com/politics/georgia-bill-would-end-long-runoffs-and-free-for-all-special-elections/WHLUNDQX7RATRGLSOPZMJQRW5Q/> between general elections and runoffs from nine weeks to four weeks.

You can find the 152-page complaint at this link.<https://coaltionforgoodgovernance.sharefile.com/share/view/sf754eec763614996b6d3234896623118>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Corporations, fight voting curbs: Press statements and symbolic periodic boycotts aren’t good enough”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122174>
Posted on May 17, 2021 12:59 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=122174> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Jerry Goldfeder and Fred Davie NYDN oped<https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-corporations-do-more-to-fight-voting-restrictions-20210514-yqcqjdciyrhxjlpipfr5vphjyu-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
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http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>



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