“Cleta Mitchell Is Training Thousands of Trump Loyalists to Monitor the Polls on Election Day. What Could Go Wrong?”

October 21, 2022, 7:23 amelection subversion risk, fraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

David Freedlander deep dive for New York: “It really makes me sad to see what happened to Cleta Mitchell,” said Rick Hasen, a legal scholar at UCLA who served on an election-law committee with Mitchell through the American Law… Continue reading

Must-read NYT: “How Disinformation Splintered and Became More Intractable”

October 21, 2022, 7:10 amcheap speechRick Hasen

NYT: On the morning of July 8, former President Donald J. Trump took to Truth Social, a social media platform he founded with people close to him, to claim that he had in fact won the 2020 presidential vote… Continue reading

“Texas County Asks for U.S. Election Monitors as State Plans to Send Inspectors”

October 20, 2022, 5:12 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

NYT: Officials from Harris County in Texas on Thursday requested federal election monitors from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division after the State of Texas confirmed this week that it would send a contingent of election inspectors there during the… Continue reading

“Alleged voter intimidation at Arizona drop box puts officials on watch”

October 20, 2022, 5:11 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

WaPo: The report landed in the Arizona secretary of state’s online portal Monday night, around dinnertime. It contained an urgent message.“There’s a group of people hanging out near the ballot dropbox filming and photographing my wife and I as… Continue reading

“Michigan Ballot Measure Seeks to Shield State Elections from Trumpian Conspiracies”

October 20, 2022, 2:12 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

New at Bolts.

Conservative Luminaries (including former DC Circuit Judge Thomas Griffith) File Amicus Brief in Moore v. Harper Siding with Respondents

October 20, 2022, 2:10 pmlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

This is an interesting one that will get some Justices’ attention. It argues that the North Carolina Republicans are wrong even if one accepts the concurrence by Chief Justice Rehnquist in Bush v. Gore and the dissent by Chief Justice… Continue reading

More on the Varying Meanings of “Congress” and “Legislature”

October 20, 2022, 11:58 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

This is a guest post from Professor Michael Herz: In a recent Election Law Blog post regarding the Independent State Legislature doctrine, Rick Pildes observes that the term “Congress” in the U.S. Constitution sometimes means Congress acting alone and sometimes… Continue reading

“Records Show Massive Disenfranchisement and Racial Disparities in 2022 Texas Primary”

October 20, 2022, 10:15 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Brennan Center: Spurred by false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, Texas enacted a voting law in 2021 with many egregious provisions. These ranged from new limits on assistance for voters with disabilities or language-access needs to… Continue reading

“Election deniers could make deep changes to Arizona voting”

October 20, 2022, 7:58 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

AP: Gathered at a table in the state Capitol a little less than two years ago, two Republicans and a Democrat took part in a ceremony prescribed by state law that made official Joe Biden’s 10,500-vote victory in Arizona’s 2020… Continue reading

Joining NBC News/MSNBC as Election Law Analyst for the 2022 Elections

October 20, 2022, 7:57 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Announcement: .@Rickhasen, an internationally recognized expert in election law and campaign finance regulation, has joined @MSNBC as an Election Law Analyst. Tonight he discussed the upcoming midterm election with @chrislhayes. WATCH: pic.twitter.com/pmUHadbNT1— MSNBC Public Relations… Continue reading

The term “Congress,” like the term “legislature,” Means Different Things in Different Constitutional Provisions

October 20, 2022, 7:32 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

A major issue in the Moore v. Harper case and about the independent state legislature theory (ISLT) more generally is whether the term “legislature” must mean the same thing in all the constitutional provisions that use it. In addressing that… Continue reading

“Pro-Trump conspiracy theorists hound election officials out of office”

October 19, 2022, 5:43 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Reuters: Last year, as documented by Reuters, U.S. election officials endured an onslaught of intimidation by Trump’s supporters after the 2020 election. This year, they’re facing well-funded campaigns such as the one in Washoe. Officials who resist baseless stolen-election claims… Continue reading

“Videos Show Confusion as Florida Police Arrest People on Voter Fraud Charges”

October 19, 2022, 5:39 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

NYT: Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida announced in August “a first salvo” of criminal charges in what he called a long-overdue crackdown on voter fraud by his newly created Office of Election Crimes and Security.But recently released body camera… Continue reading

“Only 1 in 4 Election Websites Uses the .gov Domain. That’s a Problem — and an Opportunity”

October 19, 2022, 2:42 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

New from CDT. See also this from WaPo.