On the afternoon of Monday, April 5, a 3-judge U.S. District Court blocked Columbia, South Carolina, from electing a city council member to the vacant 2nd district seat. The election had been scheduled for April 6. The city is conducting a regularly-scheduled election for other city offices anyway on April 6, and the regularly-scheduled part of the election will continue. However, the votes to fill the vacancy won’t count. See this story. The decision is Butler v City of Columbia, 3:10cv-794. It is signed by Judges Clyde H. Hamilton, a Bush Sr. appointee on the 4th circuit, Joseph F. Anderson, a Reagan appointee, and Cameron McGowan Currie, a Clinton appointee.

The second district did not become vacant until March 9. The city decided to fill the seat at its regular April election, even though the deadline for filing had passed, and absentee voting had already commenced. The 3-judge panel stopped the election because the rules for this special election had been changed and the U.S. Justice Department had not approved those changes. South Carolina is one of the states that is subject to section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog for this news.