On January 21, the two South Carolina bills that would have switched the state from open primaries to closed primaries failed to advance. See this story. Scroll down to “Closed primary bills hit snag over GOP infighting.”
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On January 21, a New York state trial court invalidated the boundaries of the Eleventh U.S. House district. He ruled that the boundaries violate the New York State Constitution, which protects racial and ethnic minorities in districting. The Eleventh District includes Staten Island and part of Brooklyn. The judge ordered the redistricting commission to draw new boundaries that would put Staten Island in with southern Manhattan. Williams v Board of Elections of the State of New York, New York County Supreme Court, 164002/2025.
The Eleventh District currently has a Republican incumbent. The state will appeal. If the decision stands, it is likely that Republicans would lose the seat. Here is the 18-page decision.
On January 16, the five presidential elector candidates for Shiva Ayyadurai in Nebraska filed this request to the U.S. Supreme Court for more time to file their proposed cert petition. Their petition in 2024 for independent presidential candidate Ayyadurai had enough valid signatures, but the Secretary of State refused to put him on the ballot as an independent because he was born in India. The Eighth Circuit last year agreed with the U.S. District Court, which had ruled in favor of the Secretary of State.
The electors want to try to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court that they should have been allowed to run. Ayyadurai himself is not on the case. Lauters v Evnen, 25A834.
The only time the U.S. Supreme Court ever accepted a ballot access case in which only presidential elector candidates were plaintiffs was 1969, in Moore v Ogilvie. This was an Illinois case. The electors had to claim they were unpledged. They really wanted to support U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy as an independent presidential candidate, but they couldn’t because McCarthy didn’t want to run and therefore had nothing to do with the lawsuit.
The Alaska Elections Division is about to mail a postal letter to all registered members of the Alaskan Independence Party, telling them they they may wish to re-register because their party no longer exists. See this story.
On January 20, the Virginia Senate Elections & Privileges Committee defeated SB 76 by 6-9. It would have moved the non-presidential primary in presidential years from June to March. That would have automatically moved the deadline for non-presidential minor party and independent candidate petitions from June to March as well. The bill’s sponsor was Senator Schuyler Van Valkenburg (D-Henrico).