Rick Hasen Profile picture
Sep 23, 2020 13 tweets 3 min read Read on X
My new one @Slate: I’ve Never Been More Worried About American Democracy Than I Am Right Now; The pre-emptive attack on the vote count is a five-alarm fire.
. slate.com/news-and-polit… via @slate
This one was painful to write.
For the record, I wrote this piece BEFORE President Trump would not commit to a peaceful transition of power if he loses because of (made-up) issues with mail-in ballots.
I hope Chris Wallace follows up on this at the first presidential debate, and Republican leaders dismiss these kinds of comments out of hand just like they commendably did when Trump floated idea of delaying the election.
Today feels even more surreal than other days during this period.
What to do about all this concern about a fair November election? Turn worry into action.
1. Be sure you are properly registered to vote.
2. Reach out and help others register to vote. If you're not registered, you can't vote.
3. Voter in person or by mail as early as you can /1
4. If you vote by mail and can track your ballot, make sure it was received; cure problems if you can/need to
5. Work as a poll worker if you can (many older Americans cannot because of Covid)
6. Demand transparency of election officials about when and how votes are counted /2
7. Demand social media cos take down voting misinformation, like false statements that ballots are rigged (Facebook and Twitter did not do this w recent Don Jr. post)
8. Remind media companies to be patient and report results as "too early to call" until we have sure results /3
9. Resist the urge to spread potentially false voting and election information and be on the lookout for it.
10. Urge responsible Republican and Democratic leaders to commit to abiding by legitimate election results and condemn statements not agreeing to peaceful transitions /4
11. If there are attempts to try to thwart the people's will by ignoring votes or failing to count or report them accurately, be prepared for massive, constant, peaceful protests aimed at preserving the rule of law.
12. Urge the judiciary to uphold the rule of law /5
13. To end where I started, don't turn worry into complacency. Now is the time for action to protect American democracy. Vote like our democracy depends on it and encourage others to do the same. 6/6

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More from @rickhasen

Sep 13, 2023
Today under the auspices of @UCLA_Law #SafeguardingDemocracyProject, an ad hoc cross-ideological diverse committee has issued a major report: "24 for ’24: Urgent Recommendations in Law, Media, Politics, and Tech for Fair and Legitimate 2024 Elections." /1 law.ucla.edu/sites/default/…
Image
Back in March, the UCLA Law Safeguarding Democracy Project held a conference, Can American Democracy Survive the 2024 Elections? /2law.ucla.edu/academics/cent…
Following the conference some of the participants met as an ad hoc committee to consider recommendations in law, politics, media, and tech for fair and legitimate elections in 2024. /3
Read 15 tweets
Nov 19, 2022
About to be done producing free content for Elon here. Might just keep up automated tweets linking to blog posts. Find me @rickhasen@mastodon.online
Gonna need a lot of help here. Thank you all
I had started posting @rickhasen@mastodon.online yesterday and the posts were automatically coming here as tweets too thanks to the mastodon-twitter cross-poster. I've turned that off. So follow me over there if you want my content.
Read 4 tweets
Nov 18, 2022
Garland has a lot of control over who gets appointed as special counsel. He can pick someone with integrity and respect on both sides of the aisle. And someone who can act quickly. He understands how Mueller faltered.
Garland also will have ultimate control over what happens. Better to appoint the counsel quickly, as it was inevitable that Trump was going to run for office and claim a witch hunt no matter what.
Read 5 tweets
Nov 8, 2022
I do not believe anything in the RNC consent decree prevented the RNC from pursuing litigation over election rules.
There are other reasons by election litigation has exploded, nearly tripling in the period since Bush v. Gore in 2000.
A few explanations:
1. The 2000 election taught political operatives that in close elections, it may be possible to litigate to victory. That's especially true in a system that is decentralized and partisan, where there are lots of discretionary decisions to be made over how elections are run. /2
2. As @derektmuller has shown, recent changes in federal campaign finance law allow political parties to raise special funds for litigation. They have millions to spend, so why not sue over election rules? /3
Read 9 tweets
Oct 19, 2022
And here's the brief of the state respondents in Moore v. Harper (with the great Don Verrilli on the brief) supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/2…
I'm just about to dive into the state brief, but the non-state brief (supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/2…) is terrific. It demolishes the text, practice and history arguments in favor of the "independent state legislature" doctrine that should convince any serious originalist.
The non-state Respondents' brief shows that just like Congress cannot act to impose rules on federal elections without federal court review, states cannot act to do so without state and federal court review. That's consistent with text and with early practice.
Read 7 tweets
Oct 10, 2022
My New Paper: “Donald Trump Should Remain Deplatformed from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube Despite the High Bar That Platforms Should Apply to the Question of Deplatforming Political Figures”
Free download @SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
This short paper is prepared for this week's upcoming conference/webinar, "Should Donald Trump Be Returned to Social Media?" cosponsored by @Stanford and @UCLA_Law.
Free registration: electionlawblog.org/?p=132250
Abstract of my new paper: This paper argues that former United States president Donald Trump should remain deplatformed from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube even if he declares as a 2024 presidential candidate. /1
Read 16 tweets

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