Monthly Archives: August 2020

“Mail-in ballot applications in Virginia tap into worries about fraud with faulty instructions”

August 7, 2020, 7:48 amabsentee ballotsRick Hasen

WaPo: A voter registration group with a history of sending error-ridden mailers has again sown confusion in Virginia, this time tapping into concerns about mail-in ballots sparkedby President Trump’s repeated allegations — without evidence — of election fraud.The Washington-based Center … Continue reading

“Trump campaign ad manipulates three images to put Biden in a ‘basement’”

August 7, 2020, 7:46 amcampaigns, cheap speech, chicaneryRick Hasen

WaPo: The Pinocchio Test Two of these photos fall under the category of “doctored” in the Fact Checker’s Guide to Manipulated Video. In the most egregious case, one image literally takes Biden from a nature preserve and puts him… Continue reading

“GOP asks Supreme Court to reinstate Arizona voting rules deemed racially biased”

August 7, 2020, 7:38 amVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

John Kruzel story from last week: At issue in the lawsuit are a pair of Arizona voting restrictions that were struck down earlier this year by the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which sparked the GOP petition to… Continue reading

“Kanye West Indicates That His Spoiler Campaign is Indeed Designed to Hurt Biden”

August 7, 2020, 7:30 amballot access, campaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

Forbes: Amid various reports that Republican and Trump-affiliated political operatives are trying to get Kanye West onto various state ballots for November’s presidential election, the billionaire rap superstar indicated, in an interview by text today, that he was in… Continue reading

“2020 election strategy: Hire all the lawyers”

August 7, 2020, 7:28 amThe Voting WarsRick Hasen

Axios reports.

“Bribery Charges in Ohio Illuminate the Dangers of Dark Money”

August 7, 2020, 7:26 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy for the Brennan Center.

Sen. Rubio Rightly Moves to Change Key Dates for the Electoral College Process

August 7, 2020, 6:28 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Good news: Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has introduced a bill to extend the federal safe harbor period for states to determine electors from December 8, 2020 to January 1, 2021 for this year’s presidential election. He explains his position in… Continue reading

The Fight Over Vote-By-Mail is Over

August 6, 2020, 4:03 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

The Washington Post has published this piece of mine. An excerpt: The main fight over “vote by mail” is over. President Trump ended it, even if he doesn’t realize that. In the past few weeks, the president has repeatedly and… Continue reading

“Facebook Employees Ask Zuckerberg What Would Happen If Trump Used Their Platform To Dispute Election Results”

August 6, 2020, 11:51 amcheap speechRick Hasen

Buzzfeed has posted this report, with the subhead: “Facebook employees collected evidence showing the company is giving right-wing pages preferential treatment when it comes to misinformation. And they’re worried about how the company will handle the president’s falsehoods in… Continue reading

“Facebook removes troll farm posing as African-American support for Donald Trump”

August 6, 2020, 11:20 amcheap speechRick Hasen

NBC News: Facebook removed hundreds of accounts on Thursday from a foreign troll farm posing as African-Americans in support of Donald Trump and QAnon supporters. It also removed thousands of fake accounts linked to conservative media outlet The Epoch… Continue reading

“Secretaries of State Are Crucial for Protecting African American Voters”

August 6, 2020, 8:48 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

New report from CAP and Democratic Secretaries of State Assn.

“State Dept. Traces Russian Disinformation Links”

August 6, 2020, 7:44 amcheap speech, chicaneryRick Hasen

NYT: Russia continues to use a network of proxy websites to spread pro-Kremlin disinformation and propaganda in the United States and other parts of the West, according to a State Department report released on Wednesday.The report is one of the… Continue reading