The U.S. Supreme Court will probably announce on May 14 whether it will hear Kidwell v City of Union, Ohio, no. 06-1226. This very interesting case presents the question of whether a government may spend tax dollars on advertising that asks voters to vote “no” on an initiative.

Another interesting election law case pending in the U.S. Supreme Court is Underwood v Guam Election Commission, no. 06-1268. The Court will probably decide whether to take this case in late May; all three briefs have been submitted. The issue is whether an overvote is a “vote cast”. Federal law says no one may be elected Governor of Guam without a majority of the “votes cast.” The Guam Election Commission considered overvotes (which are void, since the voter voted for two different candidates for Governor) to not be “votes cast.” If they had considered them to be “votes cast”, a run-off would have been needed after the November 2006 gubernatorial election.