This lengthy story, toward the bottom, reveals that a new poll shows Texas voters now say they would rather have an independent, non-partisan redistricting commission, than the current system in which the legislature draws districts for state legislative and U.S. House seats. The story also explains all the problems that still exist with the May 29 primary for 2012.
On March 7, a subcommittee of the South Carolina House Judiciary Committee passed HB 3110, which establishes registration by party. If the bill passes, parties will be able to close their primary if they wish. Currently South Carolina has open primaries, and any voter is free to choose any party’s primary ballot.
On March 7, attorneys for the Oklahoma State Election Board filed this brief in Libertarian Party of Oklahoma v Ziriax, western district, 5:12-cv-119.
This case already has had a status conference, and the judge had urged both sides to settle the case, which challenges the March 1 petition deadline for new party petitions. The Libertarian Party had then suggested either a 30% cut in the required number of signatures (to compensate for the fact that the 2011 bill, moving the deadline from May 1 to March 1, deprived petitioning parties of two months of prime petitioning time, the months of March and April), or extending the deadline this year to May 1.
The state rejected this attempt to settle and did not make a counter settlement suggestion. Instead the state’s brief argues that the existing law is constitutional. It also suggests that perhaps the Libertarian Party petition submitted on February 29 might possibly have enough valid signatures, and therefore the lawsuit, as to the Libertarian Party, is moot. The state’s brief ignores the party’s offer to nominate by convention, thus saving the state the expense of printing up Libertarian Party primary ballots, and eliminating the need for such an early petition deadline.
On March 6, Ron Paul carried one U.S. House district in Virginia, the 3rd district. That district is Virginia’s only black majority district. It includes parts of Norfolk and parts of Richmond, and a narrow string of territory linking those two cities.
Here is an article about the low turnout in that primary. Only slightly more than 5% of Virginia’s registered voters voted in the Republican presidential primary. There was no Democratic presidential primary. Virginia has open primaries, so any registered voter was free to vote in the Republican presidential primary.
Because Paul carried the 3rd district, he picked up three delegates.
As noted earlier, the Illinois League of Women Voters has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that gerrymandering violates the First Amendment. The League’s case is Illinois League of Women Voters v Quinn, 11-943. The lower courts had rejected the League’s argument.
The state’s response had been due on March 1, but the state has asked for more time to respond, and the Court has extended the state’s deadline to April 2.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled previously that gerrymandering doesn’t violate the Fourteenth Amendment, but has not ever heard a case on whether it violates the First Amendment.
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Maslow v New York State Board of Elections, 11-857, at its March 16 conference. The Court won’t reveal its decision until March 19 at the earliest. The issue is the New York state law that makes it impossible for anyone to circulate a petition to get a candidate on a primary ballot, if the circulator isn’t either a member of the candidate’s party, or a notary public. In this case, a wife was not permitted to circulate her husband’s petition because the wife is not a member of the husband’s party.
Here is the state’s response to the Maslow cert petition.