Category Archives: chicanery
Must-Read: “Russian Cyberattack Targeted Elections Vendor Tied To Voting Day Disruptions”
Must-read Pam Fessler for NPR:
When people showed up in several North Carolina precincts to vote last November, weird things started to happen with the electronic systems used to check them in.
“Voters were going in and being told that… Continue reading
“Here’s a voter fraud myth: Richard Daley ‘stole’ Illinois for John Kennedy in the 1960 election”
Paul von Hippel:
President Trump has chartered a Commission on Election Integrity to investigate his claim that millions of voters, including undocumented immigrants, voted illegally in 2016. Although no evidence has been offered to support this allegation, it does evoke… Continue reading
Unanimous FEC Concludes Project Veritas Employee Likely Violated FEC Rules by Facilitating Foreign Contributions in Sting
Bloomberg BNA:
An undercover operative for a conservative group likely violated rules against foreign campaign contributions while seeking to show Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was willing to break those same rules, the Federal Election Commission concluded.
The FEC said… Continue reading
CA: “DA: Hackers Penetrated Voter Registrations in 2016 Through State’s Election Site”
KQED:
Hackers successfully penetrated state-run online voter registration systems in 2016, triggering confusion and heated exchanges between voters, poll workers and poll watchers during California’s June 7 primary, Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said Friday.
“I think that pretty… Continue reading
More Bauer on Trump Campaign Potential Liability for Campaign Finance Violations
Here.
I think the severability point I raised last week is also important: that is, one can hold that the ban as applied to foreign principals (and particularly foreign governments) is constitutional even if the application to other foreign nationals… Continue reading
Federal Court Affirms $1000 Fine Against Kris Kobach for Misleading Court on Voting Documents Presented to Trump
So reports Jonathan Shorman.
Update: The district court’s opinion reviewing an earlier magistrate judge’s sanctions order against Kobach is here. Particularly noteworthy is the district court’s comment that SOS Kobach’s conduct “demonstrate a pattern” of misleading statements to the… Continue reading
“5 Ways to Interfere in American Elections—Without Breaking the Law”
Uri Friedman for The Atlantic.
“Five sentenced to days in jail for Supreme Court disruption over campaign finance”
WaPo:
Five protesters who disrupted a session of the U.S. Supreme Court by shouting disapproval of its rulings on campaign finance law were sentenced to either one or two weekends in prison Monday after losing a bid to overturn a… Continue reading
Re Don Jr.: Federal Sentencing Guidelines Punish Campaign Finance Cooperation with Foreign Governments More Severely Than Foreign Nationals
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy:
As I explain in a forthcoming law review article, Dark Money as a Political Sovereignty Problem, the federal sentencing guidelines already make a distinction between mere foreign nationals and members of foreign governments. The article states, “[t]he… Continue reading
“EXCLUSIVE: Voter fraud in Palm Beach County: State attorney finds crimes, but no suspect”
Palm Beach Post:
Detectives with the State Attorney’s Office found clear-cut evidence of voter fraud in last year’s August election, with nearly two dozen people’s signatures forged on requests for absentee ballots.
But prosecutors are dropping the case.
Why?… Continue reading
“Hill investigators, Trump staff look to Facebook for critical answers in Russia probe”
CNN:
There are two questions. One is: Was there coordination or collusion between the campaigns and these technology tools, which overwhelmed the search engine tools so that certain stories popped up at the top of your newsfeed. The second is,… Continue reading
“Kelly: States ‘nuts’ if they don’t ask feds for election protection help”
Today’s Must Read: “Exclusive: Read the Previously Undisclosed Plan to Counter Russian Hacking on Election Day”
Quite a wow from Time:
President Obama’s White House quietly produced a plan in October to counter a possible Election Day cyber attack that included extraordinary measures like sending armed federal law enforcement agents to polling places, mobilizing components of… Continue reading