Subject: news of the day 7/1/04
From: Rick Hasen
Date: 7/1/2004, 7:21 AM
To: election-law

Lying About Lying in Campaigns

The Duluth (Minn.) News offers New Law Fines Candidates for Filing False Complaints, which begins: "One of the oldest dirty tricks in Minnesota politics may soon bite the dust. A favorite tactic of unscrupulous candidates has been to file complaints with county attorneys falsely accusing their opponents of lying in their campaign literature. The county attorneys are required by law to investigate whether the charges have any merit or not. Then the complaining candidate runs around telling voters that his opponent is under criminal investigation for breaking campaign laws. But a new law that takes effect today may put a stop to that tactic. The law will speed up investigations of complaints and make people who file frivolous or malicious grievances foot the bill."


"It's Campaign Reform v. Free Speech"

James Pinkerton offers this Newsday oped on the Michael Moore campaign finance controversy. Pikerton incorrectly characterizes the scope of the portion of McCain-Feingold at issue in the controversy. For a suggestion coming from the far left in Counterpunch, see this suggestion: Moore "should hire either the most incompetent or rightwing-politically-biased legal representation available to defend him against these charges....If Moore launched a thoroughly incompetent legal defense to these charges and lost he could take a significant step towards establishing more balanced news coverage on the American airwaves."



Two Washington Post reports of interest

See Bush Campaign Reaches Out to Church-goers and Republicans Name 62 Who Raised Big Money.


"Justices Allow Redistricting in Georgia"

The New York Times offers this report. The A.P. report is here. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution report is here.


"Odd Alliances Form In Effort to Place Nader on the Ballot"

The New York Times offers this report.

" Civil Rights Groups Issue Report on Electronic Voting Security"

Earlier this week, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Brennan Center for Justice released this report on improving the security of electronic voting systems for the 2004 elections. Dan Tokaji has a link to the report, and his own comments, here.
-- 
Rick Hasen
Professor of Law and William M. Rains Fellow
Loyola Law School
919 South Albany Street
Los Angeles, CA  90015-1211
(213)736-1466
(213)380-3769 - fax
rick.hasen@lls.edu
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html
http://electionlawblog.org