On March 21, the Alabama Libertarian Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its case over access to the list of registered voters. Alabama gives a list of the registered voters free to the qualified parties, but it charges $36,000 for an unqualified party, even if that unqualified party is petitioning and obviously needs the list to help it check the validity of its petition.

In 1970, the U.S. Supreme Court summarily affirmed a judgment of a 3-judge U.S. District Court in New York, that if the state gives a free list of the registered voters to the qualified parties, it must give it to unqualified parties who are petitioning. Despite that, and precedents from lower courts outside Alabama that agreed with that principle, the federal courts in Alabama refused to follow the precedent and ruled against the Libertarian Party. Here is the cert petition. The case number hasn’t been assigned yet (the number on the filing is not the case number).

Chris Vance, who spent most of his adult life in Republican Party leadership positions, will run for State Senate in 2022 as an independent candidate. He will run in the 31st district, and he hopes to defeat the incumbent Republican. Vance was chair of the Republican Party of Washington state for several years starting in 2001. He was also the Republican choice for U.S. Senate in 2016, and he served in the legislature 1990-1994. Here is the wikipedia page about him. He became an independent in 2017.

On March 18, an Arkansas state trial court enjoined four new laws that restrict procedures for voters at the polls. See this story. There is no written opinion yet. The case had been filed by the Arkansas League of Women Voters.