Inside Job

by Steven Rosenfeld

  16. Same as 12: “Editorial: Something smells in the Democratic Party,” The Des Moines Register editorial, February 3, 2016.

  17. Same as 11: Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In, by Bernie Sanders. p. 167.

  18. “Texas Democratic primary and caucuses, 2008,” wikipedia.org. This entry recounts how Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign filed challenges of the Texas caucus results, seeking to nullify the votes of tens of thousands of attendees. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Democratic_primary_and_caucuses,_2008.

  CHAPTER 3: LAS VEGAS RULES

  19. “Harry Reid delivers for Hillary Clinton: Nevada’s ‘neutral’ power players may have saved a campaign and changed history.” by Jon Ralston, USA Today, February 20, 2016, http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/02/20/hillary-clinton-wins-nevada-caucus-harry-reid-culinary-union-jon-ralston/80688750/.

  20. “Results from the 2016 Nevada GOP caucuses,” by Lily Mihalik, Anthony Pesce and Ben Walsh, Los Angeles Times, February 23, 2016. This map shows Sanders winning Nevada’s northern counties, including Reno and Carson City. http://graphics.latimes.com/election-2016-nevada-results/.

  21. “Update: Suspicious votes, long times at Dem caucus,” by Mark Robison, Reno Gazette-Journal, Feb. 20, 2016. This report categorizes more than a dozen problems associated with inexperience and mismanagement in running the Democratic caucuses in Reno. http://www.rgj.com/story/news/politics/2016/02/20/long-lines-too-few-ballots-dem-caucus-locations/80666630/.

  22. “Don’t Call It a Bern-Back: According to social media rumors, Bernie Sanders claimed a win in Nevada in a surprise post-caucus upset, but the reality was far more complex and less definitive,” by Kim LaCapria, snopes.com, April 9, 2016. This report describes the next stage in Nevada’s delegate selection process, county conventions, and statements by the campaigns about who was winning. http://www.snopes.com/bernie-sanders-won-nevada/.

  CHAPTER 4: NEW QUESTIONS, NEW BARRIERS

  23. “Democracy Lost: A Report on the Fatally Flawed 2016 Democratic Primaries,” by Election Justice USA, August 2016, ElectionJusticeUSA.org. See pages 36–48, for media exit poll discrepancies with official results. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5O9I4XJdSISNzJyaWIxaWpZWnM/view.

  24. “There Were 5-Hour Lines to Vote in Arizona Because the Supreme Court Gutted the Voting Rights Act,” by Ari Berman, The Nation, March 23, 2016, https://www.thenation.com/article/there-were-five-hour-lines-to-vote-in-arizona-because-the-supreme-court-gutted-the-voting-rights-act/.

  Also see: Democracy Diminished: State and Local Threats to Voting Post-Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, by NAACP Legal Defense Fund, 2016, pages 9–12. These reports describe how hours-long delays in Maricopa County, due to switching from precinct voting to voting centers, had not been approved by the Justice Department before the US Supreme Court invalidated DOJ oversight in its 2013 ruling on the Voting Rights Act. http://www.naacpldf.org/files/publications/Democracy%20Diminished-State%20and%20Local%20Voting%20Changes%20Post-Shelby%20v.%20Holder_4.pdf.

  25. Same as 23: See pages 13–17. “Democracy Lost: A Report on the Fatally Flawed 2016 Democratic Primaries,” by Election Justice USA, August 2016.

  26. Same as 11: Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In, by Bernie Sanders. p. 174.

  27. “Closed primary,” ballotpedia.org. This lists all states with closed presidential primaries. https://ballotpedia.org/Closed_primary.

  28. “It’s Far Harder To Change Parties In New York Than In Any Other State,” by Leah Lebresco, FiveThirtyEight.com, April 19, 2016, https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/its-far-harder-to-change-parties-in-new-york-than-in-any-other-state/.

  29. Same as 11: Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In, by Bernie Sanders. p. 175.

  30. Justice Department Suing NYC Board Of Elections Over Last Year’s Pre-Primary Mass Voter Purge, by Nathan Tempey, gothamist.com, January 13, 2017. This report recounts the sloppy voter purge by Kings County (Brooklyn) before the 2016 Democratic presidential primary that led to 122,000 infrequent voters being removed. http://gothamist.com/2017/01/13/doj_sues_boe_brooklyn_voter_rolls.php.

  31. Same as 30: Justice Department Suing NYC Board Of Elections Over Last Year’s Pre-Primary Mass Voter Purge, by Nathan Tempey, gothamist.com.

  32. “Statement From A. G. Schneiderman On Voting Issues During New York’s Primary Election,” The New York State Office of the Attorney General, April 20, 2016. “I am deeply troubled by the volume and consistency of voting irregularities, both in public reports and direct complaints to my office’s voter hotline, which received more than one thousand complaints in the course of the day yesterday.” https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/statement-ag-schneiderman-voting-issues-during-new-york%E2%80%99s-primary-election.

  33. Same as 11: Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In, by Bernie Sanders. p. 178.

  CHAPTER 5: THE NOT-SO-GOLDEN STATE

  34. Same as 11: Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In, by Bernie Sanders. p. 179.

  35. “Would-be independents joining the American Independent Party could blame California’s voter registration card,” by Jon Myers, Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2016. Excerpt: “A Times investigation found widespread confusion among California voters who choose the American Independent Party, an ultra-conservative organization that’s been largely invisible from most campaigns. A poll of AIP voters found 73% mistakenly thought they were ‘independent’ of all parties. Those voters should have chosen the ‘no party preference’ option.” http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-american-independent-party-california-voter-registration-card-20160419-story.html.

  36. “Primary Elections in California,” by Alex Padilla, California Secretary of State.

  This page from the Secretary of State’s website explains how the Democratic presidential primary allows independent voters to cast ballots in the party’s contest. “The Democratic and American Independent parties notified the Secretary of State that they will allow voters who did not state a political party preference to vote the presidential ballot of their parties in the upcoming June 7, 2016, Presidential Primary Election. Their notifications can be found in CC/ROV Memorandum #16036 (PDF).” http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/primary-elections-california/.

  37. “Snagged Votes In Los Angeles,” by Judy Frankel, Huffington Post, July 5, 2016. This report notes certain counties opted for special crossover ballots for independent, or nonparty preference (NNP), voters, and the confusion in Los Angeles over handling these ballots. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judy-frankel/snagged-votes-in-los-angeles_b_10794718.html.

  38. “AP count: Clinton has delegates to win Democratic nomination,” by Hope Yen, Stephen Ohlemacher, Lisa Lerer and Catherine Lucey, The Associated Press, June 7, 2016. This report, dateline Los Angeles, announced the Democratic nomination was locked up by Clinton one day before California held its presidential primary. https://apnews.com/4c9c850385c84b12ad5b85fda49743f9/after-weekend-wins-clinton-cusp-democratic-nomination.

  39. Same as 11: Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In, by Bernie Sanders. p. 179.

  40. “California Democratic primary, 2016,” wikipedia.org. This report of the final vote count shows Hillary Clinton’s election night margin of 14 percent shrinking to 7 percent after all California primary ballots were counted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Democratic_primary,_2016.

  CHAPTER 6: THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE

  41. “DNC Chair Says Superdelegates Exist to Protect Party Leaders,” by Independent Voter, YouTube.com, February 12, 2016. This video clip shows a Feb. 12, 2016, CNN interview where DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said that superdelegates ensure inclusivity but also ward against grassroots activists. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5llLIKM9Yc.

  42. “The 4 Most Damaging Emails From the DNC WikiLeaks Dump,” by Alana Abrasion and Shushannah Walsh, ABC News, July 25, 2016, http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/damaging-emails-dnc-wikileaks-dump/story?id=40852448.

  43. “Carol Wilding et al vs. DNC Services Corporation and Deborah Wasserman
Schultz,” United States District Court, Southern District of Florida, Case 0:16-cv-61511-XXXX, entered June 28, 2016. This class-action lawsuit, filed by Sanders supporters against the DNC before the Democratic Convention, accuses the party of violating its charter to be a neutral party in nominating contests and cites Wikileaks’ email hacks as evidence. http://jampac.us/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/1-CLASS-ACTION-COMPLAINT-6-28-16.pdf.

  44. “Will Keith Ellison Move the Democrats Left? By running for the D.N.C. chair, the Minnesota congressman hopes to lead a populist opposition against Trump,” by Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, February 27, 2017. This profile of a bid by Rep. Keith Ellison, D-MN, to be DNC chair gives two more examples of the DNC colluding with Clinton’s campaign in the primary season. First is establishing a joint fund-raising operation before the national party convention. Second is ex-chairwoman Donna Brazile, then a CNN commentator, alerting the campaign to questions for an upcoming televised debate. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/will-keith-ellison-move-the-democrats-left.

  Also see: “Donna Brazile,” wikipedia.org. Brazile’s biograhy, including stints as Al Gore’s presidential campaign manager in 2000 and interim DNC chair in 2011. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Brazile.

  45. “Top Democrat backpedals after saying primaries were ‘rigged,’” by Yaron Steinbuch, The New York Post, Feb. 10. 2017. This report notes Tom Perez, then a candidate for DNC chair, told Kansas lawmakers that the 2016 nominating contest was rigged against Sanders, and then backtracked. http://nypost.com/2017/02/10/ex-labor-secretary-backpedals-on-rigged-democratic-primaries/.

  46. Same as 11: Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In, by Bernie Sanders. p. 195.

  47. Same as 11: Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In, by Bernie Sanders. p. 185, 197.

  SECTION II: THE REPUBLICANS

  CHAPTER 7. GAMING THE RULES OF Politics

  48. “Why Did the Founding Fathers Choose a Republic?” by Thomas DeMichele, May 12, 2016, FactMyth.com. This article concisely describes why the United States is a republic with democratic features, but not a democracy where popular votes determine governing institutions. http://factmyth.com/why-did-the-founding-fathers-choose-a-republic/.

  Also see: “Child of the Enlightenment,” by Garry Wills, The New York Times Magazine supplement, July 2, 2017. This describes the founder’s competing considerations, including the distrust of popular factions and the belief the high reaches of government should be run by people of “sufficient virtue and intelligence.” https://usedbooksinclass.com/tag/garry-wills-child-of-enlightenment/.

  49. The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry, by Ned and Constance Sublette, Lawrence Hill Books, 2016. This authoritative economic history of the Atlantic slave trade describes its impact on the colonial and pre-Civil War eras. http://www.chicagoreviewpress.com/american-slave-coast—the-products-9781613748206.php.

  50. The Great Suppression: Voting Rights, Corporate Cash, and the Conservative Assault on Democracy, by Zachary Roth, Crown, 2016. See Introduction and Chapter 4. Also same as 47: Garry Wills’ New York Times Magazine special section.

  51. “ALEC Is Talking About Changing the Way Senators Are Elected and Taking Away Your Vote: A proposed resolution advocates for overturning the 17th Amendment so Republican-controlled state legislatures could pick senators,” by John Nichols, The Nation, July 18, 2017, https://www.thenation.com/article/alec-wants-to-to-change-the-way-senators-are-elected-and-take-away-your-vote/.

  52. The Fight to Vote, by Michael Waldman, Simon and Schuster, 2016,

  http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Fight-to-Vote/Michael-Waldman/9781501116483.

  53. “United States House of Representatives elections, 2012,” wikipedia.org. Excerpt: “Although Democratic candidates received a nationwide plurality of more than 1.4 million votes (1.2%) in all House elections, the Republican Party won a 33-seat advantage in the state-apportioned totals, thus retaining its House majority by 17 seats.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2012.

  54. “United States House of Representatives elections, 2016,” wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2016.

  55. 2016 Pre- and Post-Election State Legislative Control, by National Conference of State Legislatures, November 9, 2016. Excerpt: “This map shows post-election legislative control as of Wednesday morning. Republicans control both chambers of the legislature in 32 states, Democrats control both chambers of the legislature in 13 states and three states split control.” http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/2016-pre-and-post-election-state-legislative-control.aspx.

  56. “October House Overview: GOP Risk Factors,” by David Wasserman, The Cook Political Report, October 17, 2013. Redistricting expert Wasserman writes the GOP has a 6.8 percent head start in the competitive congressional races that will determine the House majority in 2014’s elections. “By our calculations, House Democrats would need to win the national popular vote for the House by between six and seven points in order to win the barest possible majority of 218 seats. How did we calculate this? In 2012, Democratic candidates won 49.16 percent of the national popular House vote to 48.03 for Republicans, but only won 201 of 435 seats. If every seat shifted uniformly in Democrats’ direction, Democrats’ lead nationally would have needed to expand to roughly 6.8 percent to drag 17 more GOP-won seats to Democrats’ side.” http://cookpolitical.com/story/6330.

  Also see: “A Very Early Look At The Battle For The House In 2018: Donald Trump is unpopular enough that Republicans could lose the House, but there’s a lot of uncertainty.” by Harry Enten, FiveThirtyEight.com, February 15, 2017. Enten writes the GOP has a 5.5 to 8.0 percent starting line advantage due to 2011’s extreme redistricting in the races that will control the House in 2018’s election. “Democrats are essentially spotting the GOP 5.5 points in the battle for control of the House. And even that may be underestimating Republicans ability to win a majority of seats without a majority of the vote. Since 2012 (or when most states instituted the current House district lines), Republicans have won, on average, 51 percent of the two-party House vote and 55 percent of House seats. If that difference holds for 2018, Democrats would need to win the House popular vote by about 8 percentage points to win half the House seats.” https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-very-early-look-at-the-battle-for-the-house-in-2018/.

  57. Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America’s Democracy, by David Daley, Norton, 2016, http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Ratfked/.

  58. “The GOP Targets State Legislatures: He who controls redistricting can control Congress,” by Karl Rove, The Wall Street Journal, March 4, 2010. Rove’s commentary laying out the RedMap plan began, “The political world is fixated on whether this year’s elections will deliver an epic rebuke of President Barack Obama and his party. If that happens, it could end up costing Democrats congressional seats for a decade to come.”

  https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703862704575099670689398044.

  59. “2011 State and Legislative Partisan Composition,” National Conference of State Legislatures. For 2011, when stage legislatures or commissions redrew legislative and US House districts, Democrats fully controlled eleven states: AR, CA, CN, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, VT, VA, and WV. Republicans controlled twenty states: AL, AZ, FL, GA, ID, IN, KS, ME, MI, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, WS, and WY. http://www.ncsl.org/documents/statevote/LegisControl_2011.pdf.

  60. “Supreme Court forced to confront the ‘unsavory’ politics of district lines,” by Richard Wolf, USA Today, May 25, 2017. Wolf notes the blue states where extreme redistricting is most prevalent are MD, MA, IL. “In 2012, Republicans won 53% of the vote but 72% of the House seats in states where they drew the lines. Democrats won 56% of the vote but 71% of the seats where they controlled the process.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/05/25/supreme-court-faces-decision-politics-election-districts/102020210/.

/>   Also see: “The State of Redistricting Litigation (March 2017 edition),” Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, https://www.brennancenter.org/blog/state-redistricting-litigation-march-2017-edition.

  CHAPTER 8. CREATING PARTISAN GHETTOS

  61. Issues Related to State Voter Identification Laws, US Government Accountability Office, September 2014. This report analyzes how stricter voter ID laws diminished turnout in Kansas and Tennessee. “GAO found that turnout among eligible and registered voters declined more in Kansas and Tennessee than it declined in comparison states—by an estimated 1.9 to 2.2 percentage points more in Kansas and 2.2 to 3.2 percentage points more in Tennessee—and the results were consistent across the different data sources and voter populations used in the analysis.” https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-14-634.

  62. Issues Related to Registering Voters and Administering Elections, US Government Accountability Office, June 2016. This report has a chart on page 40 that shows same-day registration and voting by mail have the largest measurable effects of increasing turnout. http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/678131.pdf.

  63. Baker v. Carr, Wikipedia. This is the US Supreme Court’s 1962 decision stating the goal of redistricting was to create political districts based on the principle of one-person, one-vote. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_v._Carr.

  64. Vieth v. Jubelirer [02–1580], FindLaw.com. The Supreme Court’s 2004 ruling, Vieth v. Jubelirer where Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote said political “decorum” should guide mapmakers. http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/541/267.html.

  65. Same as 57: Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America’s Democracy, by David Daley, Norton, 2016.

  66. Same as 60: “The State of Redistricting Litigation (March 2017 edition).” This Brennan Center summary tracks federal redistricting litigation. The only challenge filed by Republicans against Democrats is in Maryland. It notes that redistricting cases fall under two categories, those challenging the illegal use of race and those asserting excessive partisanship.