Monthly Archives: September 2020

New York: “Federal Court Upholds Higher Ballot Threshold for Parties”

September 1, 2020, 8:11 pmballot access, third partiesRick Hasen

State of Politics: A federal judge on Tuesday upheld stricter ballot standards for political parties, dealing a blow to the Working Families Party and the SAM Party’s efforts to challenge the measure. The new law, which had been paired… Continue reading

“PA Supreme Court To Tackle Ballot Dropboxes And Other Vote-By-Mail Disputes”

September 1, 2020, 6:28 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Tierney Sneed: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said Tuesday that it will hear a lawsuit brought by Democrats seeking to head-off a dispute Republicans have raised about the use of dropboxes for mail ballots and other aspects of how absentee voting… Continue reading

Suit Seeking to Kick Kanye West Off Virginia Ballot Alleges That At Least Three People Listed as West Electors Had Their Signatures Obtained via Fraud

September 1, 2020, 6:19 pmcampaigns, chicanery, electoral collegeRick Hasen

You can find the complaint at this link. As Ben Jacobs noted the other day, this may be the first time a candidate for President has been sued by one of the candidate’s purported presidential electors.

“Russian internet trolls hired U.S. journalists to push their news website, Facebook says”

September 1, 2020, 5:31 pmcheap speech, chicaneryRick Hasen

NBC News: Peace Data aimed to court left-leaning voters, said Ben Nimmo, whose company, Graphika, released a report on the site.“This looks like an attempt to target left-wing audiences on a range of issues, but the operation got taken… Continue reading

“Instagram Posts Make False Claim California Voters Will Be ‘Turned Away’ From Polls Due To Mail-In Voting”

September 1, 2020, 5:24 pmcheap speech, chicaneryRick Hasen

Cap Radio reports.

“Deciphering the ‘red mirage,’ the ‘blue shift,’ and the uncertainty surrounding election results this November”

September 1, 2020, 4:41 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Marshall Cohen for CNN.

“Postal Service Watchdog Outlines ‘Concerns’ Surrounding Election Readiness”

September 1, 2020, 4:41 pmabsentee ballotsRick Hasen

NPR: The U.S. Postal Service’s inspector general has outlined a number of ongoing concerns about the agency’s ability to manage the influx of mailed ballots for the 2020 election — separate from the recent controversial actions by the postmaster general.The… Continue reading

Major Republican firm Holtzman Vogel is Representing Kanye West in His Attempt to Get on the Wisconsin Ballot [UPDATE: Apparently This Was a Clerical Error and Firm Not Representing West]

September 1, 2020, 2:40 pmballot accessRick Hasen

In case anyone still had doubts about what this was all about. Kanye West's address in his court filing to get on the ballot in Wisconsin is the law office of Jill Holtzman Vogel, a Republican state senator from Virginia… Continue reading

“Prepare for the weirdest election ‘night’ ever”

September 1, 2020, 2:39 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Politifact: To minimize the risk of coronavirus spreading, many states (though not all) have eased the process of mail voting, often by eliminating the need for an “excuse” to vote by mail. A few states are going so far… Continue reading

“New U.S. Citizens Were One Of The Fastest-Growing Voting Blocs. But Not This Year.”

September 1, 2020, 1:30 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

538: But even before COVID-19, the wait time for citizenship applications had hit new highs under the Trump administration. According to USCIS numbers, the naturalization process averaged 8.8 months in 2020, compared with 5.6 months in 2016 and a… Continue reading

“Barr tightens rules on surveillance of political candidates and advisers”

September 1, 2020, 12:08 pmcampaignsRick Hasen

WaPo: Attorney General William P. Barr imposed new rules Tuesday tightening the use of government surveillance on political candidates or their staffers — a move likely to cheer conservatives who have long criticized how the FBI investigated the Trump… Continue reading

“Republicans are flooding the internet with deceptive videos and Big Tech isn’t keeping up”

September 1, 2020, 11:19 amcheap speech, chicaneryRick Hasen

CNN: A series of deceptively edited and misleading videos shared by prominent Republicans have run up millions of views across Facebook and Twitter in just the past few days. And while both companies have pledged to combat misinformation, their… Continue reading

“As election looms, Russian trolls are targeting Americans again, Facebook says”

September 1, 2020, 11:14 amcheap speechRick Hasen

CNN: People associated with the infamous St. Petersburg troll group that was part of Russia’s attempt to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election are trying to target Americans again, Facebook (FB) announced Tuesday after receiving a… Continue reading

“The election security hole everyone ignores; Increasing numbers of polling places use electronic devices to check in voters and verify their eligibility. But the devices often create chaos and introduce new vulnerabilities to elections.”

September 1, 2020, 7:36 amvoting technologyRick Hasen

Kim Zetter for Politico: Growing numbers of elections offices across the U.S. are using electronic devices to sign voters in at the polls — a shift that has occurred with little scrutiny despite a host of security questions and a… Continue reading

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The law of politics and the politics of law