On July 1, Virginia officials filed this brief in Thomas v Beals, e.d., 3:22cv-427. This is the case on whether Virginia needs to hold elections for lower house of the state legislature before November 2023. Plaintiffs argue that new elections are needed before then because the districts violate one person, one vote. They were drawn up using the 2010 census.
The Idaho Press, the state’s second oldest newspaper, has this article about the abortion planks of the state Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, and Constitution Parties. All four are different.
To its credit, the Syracuse Post-Standard published a story on July 2 saying that 2022 will be the first gubernatorial election in 80 years in which only two candidates will be on the general election ballot. See it here. Actually the newspaper isn’t quite accurate; 1946 was the last gubernatorial election in New York with only two candidates. There were several minor party petitions in 1946 but they were all challenged. They were from the Socialist, Socialist Labor, and Socialist Workers Party.
It is possible 2022 will have more choices on the ballot, if the pending Libertarian-Green lawsuit pending in the Second Circuit succeeds.
The New York Times has not run any stories about the unusually restricted choices facing New York voters this year.
At the Alaska special primary election for U.S. House last month, 4.55% of the ballots were invalid. See this story. The story lays stress on the problem that many ballots lacked the signature of a witness. The law requires two signatures, the voter’s signature plus someone else who witnessed the voter’s signature. In many cases the voter signed the outer envelope but there was no witness signature.
However, many ballots were invalid for other reasons. Some voters voted for more than one candidate, because the publicity about Alaska’s new election system emphasizes that the top four candidates will advance to the general election. Therefore, some voters believe they should vote for up to four candidates in the primary. Thanks to Mark Seidenberg for the link.
On July 1, the North Carolina State Board of Elections asked for reconsideration before an Administrative Law Judge. The Administrative Law Judge had ruled on June 22 that the Constitution Party’s 2020 gubernatorial candidate should not be fined $2,750 for being late with certain campaign finance reports. The Board argues that the ALJ should change her mind about that. Here is the Board’s filing.
