Fourth Circuit Hears Madison Cawthorn Qualifications Lawsuit on Tuesday, May 3

The Fourth Circuit will hear Cawthorn v Amalfi, 22-1251, at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, May 3. This is the case over whether North Carolina election officials may hold administrative hearings on whether Congressman Madison Cawthorn meets the qualifications to run for Congress. Cawthorn had filed this lawsuit to stop such proceedings, and he had won in U.S. District Court. That Court had ruled that no one can be challenged on 14th Amendment grounds (relating to “insurrection”) because in the 19th century, Congress granted a blanket amnesty to all persons in the past and the future. The U.S. District Court had also ruled that the North Carolina voters who are challenging Cawthorn cannot intervene in Cawthorn’s lawsuit.

Both Sides Agree to a Delay in Final Part of the Georgia Ballot Access Case

Both sides in the Georgia ballot access lawsuit, Cowen v Raffensperger, n.d., 1:17cv-4660, have agreed to postpone the remaining part of the case. This is the case over the 5% petition for independent candidates for U.S. House, and the nominees of unqualified parties. The U.S. District Court had struck down the law on First Amendment grounds, but then the Eleventh Circuit had reinstated it.

So far, the equal protection part of the lawsuit still has not been adjudicated, and remains pending in U.S. District Court. Both sides have agreed to postpone that part of the case until the plaintiffs can ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the First Amendment part of the case.

Voting Rights Groups Sue Florida Over Partisan and Racial Gerrymandering

On April 22, the League of Women Voters of Florida and some other voting rights groups sued Florida over its new U.S. House district boundaries. The case is in state court and depends on the State Constitution. See this story. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.

UPDATE: the case is Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute v Lee, Leon County circuit court, 2022-ca-000666. Here is the Complaint.

How France is Able to Count Votes So Fast

France is holding a run-off presidential election on Sunday, April 24. Each polling place has approximately 1,000 registered voters. During the day, poll workers at each polling place take note when 100 ballots have been cast. At that point the ballots are retrieved and sent to the counting station. This is repeated, each time another 100 ballots have been cast. Therefore, because the bulk of the counting is done during the day, the votes will have been counted within an hour and thirty minutes of the closing of the polls.

In the U.S., in which almost all public elections are on Tuesday, there is a glut of voters in the evening, because many people work on Tuesday during the normal business hours and then vote when they leave work in the evening. But in France, and many other countries, the flow of voters to the polling station is more evenly-spaced, because most people don’t work on Sundays.

France has no postal ballots, but France allows proxy voting. French citizens living in possessions of France have the same voting rights and the same procedures for in-person voting. French citizens living overseas, in parts of the world that are not French possessions, vote at French government offices such as consulates. See this article for more about proxy voting.