On June 13, U.S. District Court Judge John Gerrard, an Obama appointee, enjoined Nebraska’s county distribution requirement for statewide initiatives. Eggers v Evnen, 4:22cv-3089. The law says statewide initiative petitions need the signatures of 5% of the voters in 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties. Here is the opinion.
On June 16, Judge Gerrard refused to stay his own order. The state is seeking to reverse the ruling in the Eighth Circuit.
Filing for the Minnesota election has closed. The only unqualified parties that petitioned for a statewide or U.S. House race in Minnesota this year are the Socialist Workers Party, and the Independence-Alliance Party.
The four qualified parties are Democratic-Farmer-Labor, Republican, Legal Marijuana Now, and Grassroots Legalize Cannabis.
This is the first election since 2010 with no Libertarians on the statewide ballot. It is the first election since 1994 with no Green Party nominees on the statewide ballot. Here is a link to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s list of candidates. The state statewide offices are listed at the very end, following the legislative candidates.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Merrill v Milligan, 21-1086, on October 4, Tuesday. This is the case over Alabama U.S. House redistricting. The lower court earlier this year had ruled that Alabama must redraw its districts so as to create two districts with an African-American majority. The U.S. Supreme Court had then stayed that decision. That merely meant that for 2022, the legislature’s districts would be in force, but it left the main issue unsettled, for 2024 and beyond.
On June 16, three of the four Alaska Democrats who had filed to run for U.S. House in the regularly-scheduled election withdrew their names from the ballot. This is to enhance the chances of the party having one and only one candidate in the August primary. See this story.
Virginia elects its state officers in odd years. The 2021 election used the 2010 census districts, because the 2020 census was delayed. Some Virginia voters have been trying to persuade the federal courts to order new elections for lower house of the legislature based on districts that use the 2020 census. An earlier lawsuit lost because the voter-plaintiff happened to live in a district that is under-populated according to the 2020 census, so he could not show that he had been injured.
Now a new lawsuit has been filed by a voter-plaintiff who lives in an over-populated district. Here is the Complaint in Thomas v Beals, e.d., 3:22cv-427. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge David J. Novak, a Trump appointee. If the voter, Jeffrey Thomas, wins his lawsuit, the state will hold new elections before November 2023. UPDATE: see this news story.
