NBC News: The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today in a case that could result in the use of absentee ballot drop boxes for the upcoming presidential election. The case provides an opportunity for the Court’s liberal majority to reverse a decision made in the last election cycle that only the legislature can introduce absentee ballot drop boxes. Voting Rights Activists argue that is not correct and that the Wisconsin Elections Commission has discretion to make the decision. Wisconsin requires that absentee ballots be returned by mail or in person, but they argued it is unclear if the latter is limited to returning ballots to the election clerk’s office.
The Law of Assembly on Campus
Democratic politics involves far more than voting in elections. Yet, while we spend endless hours preoccupied with largely fabricated problems with elections, few pay any attention to the law of protest and assembly or its inadequacies. When we do, the question is essentially, “when would it be legal to disband the inconvenience and disruption that is protest?” This past week, I had the pleasure of engaging in an informal discussion with John Inazu (Wash U.), Ashutosh Bhagwat (UC Davis) and Tim Zick (William and Mary) about the legal and constitutional dimensions of recent campus protests and the problem with this narrow conception of the question. Beyond those issues that John identifies in his linked blog, our conversation discussed the problems with policing protests and the role of universities and colleges in our democracy.
“Johnson’s ‘intuition’ clashes with data on illegal voting”
The Hill: The numbers, agreed on by both left- and right-of-center institutes, speak for themselves:
“The Brennan Center study from the 2016 general election showed an estimated 30 incidents of suspected — not confirmed — noncitizen votes out of 23.5 million, which is 0.0001 percent of the votes cast. So the Speaker’s intuition is incorrect,” she told The Hill.
That’s a conclusion that’s also been reached by the libertarian Cato Institute, with one of its experts calling the claims one of the “most frequent and less serious criticisms” relating to migration.”
“In top races, Republicans try to stay quiet on Trump’s false 2020 claims”
Washington Post reports that while those auditioning for Vice President maybe embracing Trump’s narrative, Republican candidates in tight races are being intentionally vague, redirecting the focus on election rules. Also not good.
“[Unlike in 2022], many of the Republicans running alongside Trump in swing races are being far more ambiguous about their stance on 2020. Whether they have previously dismissed or embraced his claims, GOP nominees in some of the year’s most critical races are now evading the question and changing the topic. A number of them have steered clear of his most brazen allegations but tried to endear themselves to Trump’s supporters by questioning voting rules.”
“Montana’s Tribal Voters Could Determine the Makeup of the Senate”
Native Americans are always an important voting bloc in Montana, where they make up 6.5 percent of the population, per U.S. Census data. But this November, their involvement could potentially impact the entire nation.
Control of the Senate may hang on the outcome of the Montana Senate race, where Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is up for reelection in this reliably red state, likely facing off against Republican Tim Sheehy, whom former President Donald Trump has endorsed. Trump won Montana by nearly 17 percentage points in 2020, and Tester won by 3.5 percentage points — or nearly 18,000 votes — in 2018. Montana’s tribes comprise about five percent of the voting bloc, nearly twice the margin by which Tester won his last race.
Native voters are “hugely important to the Democratic base,” says Jim Messina, an Obama White House alum and former adviser to Tester with deep political roots in Montana. Tester ousted Republican Sen. Conrad Burns in 2006 in part by siphoning off some of Burns’ support among Native Americans. “Tester was able to cut into that bloc and really move them towards him,” Messina says.
“Will You Accept the Election Results? Republicans Dodge the Question.”
Less than six months out from the presidential contest, leading Republicans, including several of Donald J. Trump’s potential running mates, have refused to commit to accepting the results of the election, signaling that the party may again challenge the outcome if its candidate loses.
In a series of recent interviews, Republican officials and candidates have dodged the question, responded with nonanswers or offered clear falsehoods rather than commit to a notion that was once so uncontroversial that it was rarely discussed before an election.
The evasive answers show how the former president’s refusal to concede his defeat after the 2020 election has ruptured a tenet of American democracy — that candidates are bound by the outcome. Mr. Trump’s fellow Republicans are now emulating his hedging well in advance of any voting.
“Meta’s oversight board backs takedown of Australian voter fraud posts”
Reuters.
Meta’s oversight board upheld a decision to remove two Facebook posts calling for Australians to vote multiple times in an indigenous rights referendum, but noted the social media giant had not adequately explained its ban on encouraging voter fraud.… Continue reading
“Nevada Supreme Court strikes down independent redistricting commission ballot questions”
Nevada Independent. It’s disappointing to see Nevada Democrats fighting to preserve gerrymandering, especially at the state legislative level where there’s no unilateral disarmament rationale for the status quo.
The Nevada Supreme Court on Friday unanimously affirmed a district court ruling… Continue reading
“Inside the unusually aggressive Arizona grand jury that indicted Trump’s allies”
The Arizona grand jury that recently indicted 18 people for their roles in former President Donald Trump’s scheme to subvert the 2020 election cast a far wider net than state prosecutors had publicly foreshadowed.
The panel of 16 Arizonans displayed… Continue reading
“Felons or dupes? Treatment of Trump’s fake electors has varied wildly by state”
Politico.
Eighty-four Republicans in seven states falsely claimed to be Donald Trump’s presidential electors in December 2020. Three and a half years later, dozens of them are facing criminal charges that could land them in prison for years.
Dozens of… Continue reading
“Can Suing People for Lying Save Democracy?”
New Yorker:
Freeman hired a lawyer, though it wasn’t clear what could actually be done. But, in 2021, the lawyer was approached by a nonprofit called Protect Democracy. The group had been founded a few years earlier by former… Continue reading
“A flyer in her name told migrants to vote for Biden. But she says she didn’t write it”
NPR deep dive into a story previously featured on ELB from the NYT:
Zavala said a “blanket of fear” fell over her in the days after the flyers went viral.
“I didn’t know how to respond. I didn’t know… Continue reading
You Can Pick Up at 50% Off All of My Yale University Press Books, Including Cheap Speech and Election Meltdown, Until May 17
Details on ordering here (includes free shipping, only at the YUP website)
“What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign”
Washington Post. It’s rare to see candidates being this overt about what they’ll do if they get campaign contributions. Incidents like this should be part of the record justifying any future campaign finance regulation.
Trump’s response stunned several of the… Continue reading