Monthly Archives: September 2017

Judge Posner Says He Plans to Manage His Cat’s Campaign for President in 2020

September 6, 2017, 3:47 pmcampaigns, election law "humor"Rick Hasen

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin: In his e-mail, Posner wrote leaving the bench opens the way for him to assist Pixie, a Maine Coon cat who succeeded the late Dinah. Pixie intends to run for president in 2020, Posner wrote in… Continue reading

Agenda for Pence-Kobach Commission Meeting in NH

September 6, 2017, 3:00 pmfraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

Lopsided indeed. Very disappointed to see people like Kim Brace, Andrew Appel and Ron Rivest participating in this charade. Update: This from Michael McDonald is troubling. More McDonald: NH SoS Gardner told me this would be the “Democratic” meeting of… Continue reading

Would Russian Paid Facebook Ads to Help Elect Trump Be Illegal?

September 6, 2017, 2:18 pmchicaneryRick Hasen

Today’s news reveals that Facebook got money, likely from sources connected to the Russian government, to spend ads likely intended to benefit Trump’s election. Is this illegal? The issue is complicated and below I reproduce a footnote from my Cheap … Continue reading

“Facebook says it sold political ads to Russian company during 2016 election”

September 6, 2017, 1:10 pmcampaign finance, campaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

WaPo: Representatives of Facebook told congressional investigators Wednesday that it has discovered it sold ads during the U.S. presidential election to a shadowy Russian company seeking to target voters, according to several people familiar with the company’s findings. Facebook officials… Continue reading

5th Circuit Sets Oral Argument in Texas Voter ID Case for December, After First Setting It in November

September 6, 2017, 12:12 pmThe Voting Wars, voter idRick Hasen

Chuck Lindell with the schedule.

Supreme Court Will Hear Ohio Voter Purge Case November 8

September 6, 2017, 12:06 pmSupreme CourtRick Hasen

Amy Howe with the November calendar.

“Exclusive: First look at paper-ballot machines that Georgia is testing”

September 6, 2017, 10:43 amelection administration, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

AJC: The test of the system, demonstrated exclusively Tuesday for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WSB-TV, came as early voters in Conyers will begin Oct. 16 to use the ballots along with new electronic record, voting and tabulating machines ahead of… Continue reading

“Civil Rights Groups File Lawsuit Challenging Removal of Voters from New York Poll Books”

September 6, 2017, 10:39 amelection administration, NVRA (motor voter)Rick Hasen

Release: The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee), together with LatinoJustice PRLDEF and the law firm of Dechert LLP, filed suit in federal court in New York on Wednesday on behalf of Common Cause New York to… Continue reading

“Prominent Republicans Urge Supreme Court to End Gerrymandering”

September 6, 2017, 7:27 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Adam Liptak for the NYT: Breaking ranks with many of their fellow Republicans, a group of prominent politicians filed briefs on Tuesday urging the Supreme Court to rule that extreme political gerrymandering — the drawing of voting districts to give… Continue reading

“Reapportionment, Nonapportionment, and Recovering Some Lost History of One-Person, One Vote”

September 6, 2017, 7:22 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Pam Karlan has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, William and Mary Law Review). Here is the abstract: The Constitution requires a decennial “Enumeration” of the U.S. population, following which seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned among the… Continue reading

“Congress Can Help Prevent Election Hacking”

September 6, 2017, 7:20 amchicanery, election administration, voting technologyRick Hasen

Michael Chertoff oped in the WSJ: American voters received yet another rude awakening last month. Chicago’s Board of Elections reported that names, addresses, birth dates and other sensitive information about the city’s 1.8 million registered voters had been exposed on… Continue reading

Pence-Kobach Fraud Commission Members Using Personal Email to Communicate, Raising Public Records Concerns

September 6, 2017, 7:10 amfraudulent fraud squad, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Thread.

5th Circuit Motions Panel, on 2-1 Vote, Allows Texas to Enforce Its Revised ID Law Pending Appeal

September 5, 2017, 5:48 pmThe Voting Wars, voter id, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Via Josh Gerstein comes news of this order in the long-running Texas voter ID litigation. Judges Jerry Smith and Jennifer Elrod held that Texas is likely to succeed on the merits because its new voter id legislation (SB 5) is… Continue reading

Lots of Amicus Briefs in Gill v. Whitford, the WI Partisan Gerrymandering Case

September 5, 2017, 3:51 pmredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Via the Brennan Center, here are a number of interesting amicus briefs filed today supporting the challengers to Wisconsin’s redistricting (there are still more briefs coming—update: more posted here): Heather K. Gerken, Jonathan N. Katz, Gary King, Larry … Continue reading