“Appeals court puts U.S. election bets on hold mere hours after a judge allowed it”

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AP:

Just hours after it began, legal betting on the outcome of U.S. Congressional elections has been put on hold by a federal appeals court.

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an order Thursday night temporarily freezing the matter until it can consider and rule on the issue. No timetable was initially given.

The court acted at about 8:30 p.m. Thursday, mere hours after a federal judge cleared the way for the only bets on American elections to be legally sanctioned by a U.S. jurisdiction.

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“The Klan Act: Legal Liability for Political Violence”

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Richard Primus:

On Oct. 30, 2020, just days before the U.S. presidential election, a Biden-Harris campaign bus was traveling along Interstate 35 between Austin and San Antonio when a group of Trump supporters in cars and trucks—a “Trump Train”—surrounded them. For more than an hour, these vehicles drove or swerved in front of the bus, nearly running it off the road. One Trump Train vehicle collided with a Biden-Harris’s staffer’s car that was following the bus. Ultimately, the Trump Train achieved its goal: After the Biden-Harris bus managed to exit the highway, it canceled its remaining campaign stops in Texas. 

The harassment of the Biden-Harris campaign bus was a deliberate act of physical intimidation, organized and carried out with a political motive. If American elections are to be held peacefully and democratically, the perpetrators of such actions need to be held accountable. And indeed, several of the Biden campaign’s personnel who were present that day filed a federal lawsuit seeking damages against Trump Train drivers. (The attorneys litigating the case for the plaintiffs include lawyers for the nonprofit organization Protect Democracy, on whose board of advisors I serve.) 

The lawsuit, called Davis v. Cisneros, rests in part on a Reconstruction-era statute that was designed to provide redress for politically motivated violence: the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. In the past several years, as the incidence of political violence has grown, plaintiffs seeking redress have brought a variety of suits under the Klan Act, including in connection with Jan. 6. But some Klan Act suits have run into trouble as courts have given that act an unduly restrictive reading providing no liability under the Klan Act unless the defendants conspired to violate rights guaranteed by other sources of law (like the First Amendment or the Voting Rights Act).

The Davis case has the potential to debunk misinterpretations of the act and reaffirm its vitality as a tool for combating political violence. In a 64-page opinion denying the Trump Train defendants’ motion for summary judgment, Judge Robert Pitman of the Western District of Texas explained that the Klan Act creates liability whenever people conspire to use intimidation or threats to prevent citizens from engaging in lawful activity supporting candidates in federal elections, whether or not the conspirators’ actions amount to violations of anyone’s actual voting rights or free speech rights. The decision in Davis—though not the only recent decision interpreting the statute correctly—is notable for the care and depth of its analysis and the clarity with which it provides guidance for future courts. As a result, it can be a model for addressing future cases under the Klan Act. …

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Pennsylvania Supreme Court, on 4-3 Vote, Kicks on Technical Grounds Suit to Try to Get Undated and Misdated But Timely Mail-In Ballots Counted

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I had been flagging this case as a potential first U.S. Supreme Court test for the independent state legislature theory post-Moore v. Harper. But the PA Supreme Court rejected the case because the plaintiffs did not sue all of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. So this case won’t make it to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Today’s order reversed the lower court order that would have had those ballots counted on grounds that failure to do so violated the state constitution.

From the dissent: “A prompt and definitive ruling on the constitutional question presented in this appeal is of paramount public importance inasmuch as it will affect the counting of ballots in the upcoming general election. Therefore, I would exercise this Court’s King Bench authority over the instant dispute and order that the matter be submitted on the briefs.”

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“Connecticut Ballot Measure Could Make Voting More Inclusive”

absentee ballots, voters with disabilities

Bolts:

In 2020, as the world grappled with a deadly global pandemic, Connecticut officials lifted restrictions limiting who can vote by mail, allowing every citizen in the state to obtain an absentee ballot.

The results were historic: More than 650,000 Connecticut citizens voted absentee, roughly a third of all votes cast.

The liberalization of voting laws benefited everyone in the state who wanted to vote by mail, but the change particularly impacted those with disabilities. Researchers from Rutgers University and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission found that the “disability gap” in Connecticut—the gulf in turnout between voters who had disabilities and those who didn’t—was only 3.3 percent, compared to a national average of 5.7 percent that year.

“People with disabilities are more likely to vote when they have access to voting by mail,” said Douglas Kruse, the co-director of the Program for Disability Research at Rutgers University and one of the report’s authors.

But for the 2022 midterms, Connecticut reverted back, and voters once again needed to have an excuse if they wanted to vote by mail. The result was a disability turnout gap of roughly 11 percent—one of the highest in the country and significantly higher than that year’s national average of 1.5 percent. The turnout was “consistent with the idea that rolling back no-excuse absentee voting discouraged turnout among people with disabilities,” said Kruse. 

“It’s not that people with disabilities are less interested in voting,” he continued. It’s that “they face a variety of voting difficulties, everything from getting to the polls, to requesting ballots, to getting inside polling places.”

Mail voting could become easier if Connecticut voters approve a ballot initiative this November that would amend the state Constitution and create a path for everyone to acquire an absentee ballot without needing an excuse. If the proposal passes, it will be up to state legislators to put it into law. 

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