Bleeding Heartland has this very comprehensive article about Iowa ballot access laws. In 2019 and again in 2021, the legislature changed the laws to make them more severe. As a result, the number of candidates running this year, who are not Democrats or Republicans, is much smaller. The article correctly points out that the 2019 lawsuit has been in front of a federal judge for an entire year (since the briefs were filed), and the judge still has not ruled.
Several Illinois news stories have recently pointed out the large share of state legislative elections with only one candidate running. The paucity of candidates is due to the restrictive Illinois ballot access laws, both in the general election and also, to a lesser extent, in primary elections.
Here is an article from Capitol Fax.
There is also a front-page story in the March 21 issue of the Journal Register, the Springfield daily newspaper, but it is behind a pay wall. It is titled, “One in Five Voters May not have a Say in Some Races.” Thanks to Sam Cahnman for this news.
The U.S. Supreme Court has now docketed Moore v Harper, 21-1271. This is the case filed by North Carolina officials over whether Article One of the U.S. Constitution bars state courts from being involved in disputes over U.S. House districts. The state claims that Article One gives all power over federal elections to the state legislature (or to Congress, if Congress wishes to overrule state legislatures). This theory has been rejected in several previous U.S. Supreme Court opinions. Here is the state’s cert petition. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
On March 21, U.S. District Court Judge David J. Novak, a Trump appointee, held a status conference in Goldman v Northam, e.d., 3:21cv-420. This is the case on whether Virginia must hold elections this year for lower house of the state legislature. The last election for that office was in November 2021, and the state used districts based on the 2010 census. The plaintiff argues that it violates one-person, one-vote to allow members of the lower house to remain in office til January 2024, when they were elected in districts based on the 2010 census.
The judge ordered another round of briefs, to be confined to whether the plaintiff, a voter, has standing. All new briefs will be filed by April 21. This news story says that the judge orally scolded the state for having caused the case (which was filed last year) to move so slowly.
Advocates of letting independent voters vote in partisan primaries constantly say that independents are moderates, and letting independents vote in partisan primaries helps elect moderates. Research overwhelmingly rebuts this assumption. Yet another example is the roll call vote of March 9 on HR 6968, to ban oil imports from Russia. It passed with only 17 “no” votes. The “no” votes came from these members of Congress: Andy Biggs (Arizona), Dan Bishop (North Carolina), Lauren Boebert (Colorado), Cori Bush (Missouri), Madison Cawthorn (North Carolina), Scott Des Larlais (Tennessee), Matt Gaetz (Florida), Louis Gohmert (Texas), Paul Gosar (Arizona), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia), Glenn Grothman (Wisconsin), Clay Higgins (Louisiana), Thomas Massie (Kentucky), Ilhan Omar (Minnesota), Bill Posey (Florida), Chip Roy (Texas), and Tom Tiffany (Wisconsin).
Only three of these seventeen are from states with closed primaries. This shows once again that there is no correlation between type of primary, and what kind of person gets elected.
