Monthly Archives: March 2021

Must-Read: “Secret until now, records reveal clash over the Trump DOJ’s demand for NC voter data”

March 25, 2021, 7:49 amchicanery, Department of JusticeRick Hasen

News and Observer: Federal prosecutors have announced an end to a sweeping, four-year-long investigation into voter fraud in North Carolina, peeling back a veil of secrecy from a probe that pitted state and federal officials against each other over… Continue reading

“Democrats Begin Push for Biggest Expansion of Voting Since 1960s”

March 25, 2021, 7:18 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

NYT: Democrats began pushing on Wednesday for the most substantial expansion of voting rights in a half-century, laying the groundwork in the Senate for what would be a fundamental change to the ways voters get to the polls and elections… Continue reading

PR and the Israel Election

March 25, 2021, 5:22 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Israel’s election system requires a party to receive at least 3.5% of the vote to obtain any seats in the Knesset. With 91% of the vote in, 13 parties have won seats in the 120-seat parliament. Here is the current … Continue reading

“Republicans set to quiz tech CEOs on election misinformation tweeted #StopTheSteal themselves”

March 24, 2021, 5:11 pmchicanery, fraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

WaPo: House Democrats seeking to drill down on the spread of election fraud falsehoods on social media in advance of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot need to look no further than some of their Republican colleagues.A Washington Post analysis… Continue reading

“Trumpworld’s next target: Building a dark-money machine”

March 24, 2021, 10:49 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Politico: Liberals spent years building a massive dark-money machine. Now conservatives are trying to match them.Major donors are convening at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort next month for a two-day gathering to talk about what went wrong in… Continue reading

“Why Republican voter restrictions are a race against time”

March 24, 2021, 8:28 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Ron Brownstein CNN column: With their drive to erect new obstacles to voting, particularly across the Sun Belt, Republicans are stacking sandbags against a rising tide of demographic change.In many of the states where Republicans are advancing the most… Continue reading

Must Read Jessica Huseman on HR 1

March 24, 2021, 7:14 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Jessica Huseman is one of the journalists who has covered election administration issues in great depth over recent years. Although she supports much of HR 1 in principle, she has published a blistering critique which argues that the bill would… Continue reading

Under Israel’s PR System, An Islamist-Arab Party Might Determine Who Governs Israel

March 24, 2021, 6:40 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

While election numbers are still coming in, the current analysis is that the pro-Netanyahu bloc of parties would be able to muster at most 59 seats, and the anti-Netanyahu bloc 56 seats. In Israel’s 120-seat Knesset, control of 61 seats… Continue reading

“G.O.P. and Allies Draft ‘Best Practices’ for Restricting Voting”

March 23, 2021, 6:59 pmfraudulent fraud squad, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

NYT: In late January, a small group of dedicated volunteers from the conservative Heritage Action for America met with Republican legislators in Georgia, delivering a letter containing detailed proposals for rolling back access to voting. Within days, bills to restrict… Continue reading

“Joe Manchin Faces Home State Pressure to Oppose Fellow Democrats’ Voting Bill”

March 23, 2021, 6:54 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

WSJ: West Virginia election officials are lobbying Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin to oppose his party’s voting-rights legislation, again underscoring his pivotal role as the Senate’s most prominent centrist.Mr. Manchin is the only senator on the Democratic side of… Continue reading

“Voting rights clash hurtles Senate toward nuclear breakdown”

March 23, 2021, 6:50 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Politico: There’s no better preview of the voting rights buzzsaw that’s about to splinter the Senate than the current disagreement between Amy Klobuchar and Roy Blunt.Klobuchar and Blunt are a notably effective bipartisan pair on many issues, running the Rules… Continue reading

Lessig: “This is no time to compromise on democracy reform”

March 23, 2021, 6:48 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Larry Lessig responds to concerns I and others have raised against HR 1, by arguing that a broader bill makes it more likely to pass. I remain very skeptical about that.

Joshua Spivak: California Recall’s Plurality Voting Conundrum: How unusual is that Newsom can lose his seat and gain more votes than his replacement?

March 23, 2021, 1:05 pmrecall electionsRick Hasen

The following is a guest post from Joshua Spivak of the Recall Elections Blog: Attention is now being paid to one factor of the recall of California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) – the way the recall operates and whether… Continue reading

“Trump’s Former Lawyer Now Argues ‘No Reasonable Person’ Would Believe Her Voter Fraud Lies Were ‘Fact’; Powell is facing billion-dollar lawsuits after accusing voting technology companies of rigging the election”

March 23, 2021, 8:43 amchicanery, fraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

Zoe Tillman for BuzzFeed: Sidney Powell argued Monday that she couldn’t be sued for defamation for repeatedly promoting false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being rigged because “no reasonable person would” believe that her comments “were truly statements of… Continue reading