The U.S. Supreme Court is about to hear oral arguments in Shelby County, Alabama v Holder, 12-96. This event is being well-covered and there are many media stories and commentaries about the case. Here is a succinct one from Justin Levitt, a law professor who also runs the nation’s leading blog on redistricting lawsuit news. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On February 26, Illinois conducted primaries for the Democratic and Republican Parties, so they could nominate candidates for U.S. House, 2nd district. A few hours after the polls closed, the media reported that Robin Kelly had easily won the Democratic primary. But no news media with a web page seems to have cared enough about the Republican primary to report any results. If any reader finds such a story, please comment.
The 2nd congressional district covers part of Chicago, part of suburban Cook County, part of Will County, and all of Kankakee County. The Chicago Board of Elections, and the Will County Clerk, have Republican primary returns on their web pages. As of 10 p.m. Illinois time, these returns show a miniscule Republican turnout. In Chicago the vote is: 81 Paul McKinley, 52 Beverly Reid, 50 Lenny McAllister, 38 Eric Wallace, and 25 James Taylor. In Will County the vote is: 254 Wallace, 199 McAllister, 198 McKinley, 76 Reid. Taylor had withdrawn but his name remained on the ballot in Chicago, but not in Will County. The other two jurisdictions don’t show any election returns for the Republican primary on their web pages.
Alabama Senator Cam Ward (R-Alabaster) will introduce a ballot access bill on February 28. The legislative counsel has finished drafting the bill. It will lower the number of signatures for a newly-qualifying party from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote to 1.5% of the last gubernatorial vote. It moves the deadline for party petitions from the day of the primary to three weeks after the run-off primary. For 2014, the statewide requirement would be 22,415 valid signatures, due in August, if the bill passes.
The bill also cuts the number of signatures in half for non-presidential independents, but it does not move the petition deadline for them. A similar bill passed the Senate in 2011, but the House did not pass it.
On February 25, fifteen Pennsylvania representatives introduced HB 795, which would let any independent voter vote in a partisan primary. The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that it is up to political parties, not state government, to decide whether to let independent voters vote in primaries. Neither major party in Pennsylvania has ever exercised its right to invite independents into their primaries. Presumably if this bill passes, that would indicate that both major parties accept the idea, and neither major party would then go to court to overthrow the new law.
On February 21, Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi and twelve other Republican Senators introduced SB 538, which would allocate Pennsylvania’s presidential electors according to the proportion of the popular vote each presidential candidate received in the state. Pennsylvania has 20 electoral college votes, so a presidential candidate who got 5% could expect one electoral vote. If this plan had been in effect in 1992, Ross Perot would have received four electoral votes from Pennsylvania.
