Arizona State Trial Court Rules that State Constitution Does Not Ban Postal Balloting

Posted on by June 7, 2022
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On June 6, an Arizona state trial court ruled that the Arizona Constitution’s mandate for secret elections does not mean that postal ballots violate the state Constitution. Arizona Republican Party v Hobbs, Mohave County Superior Court, cv-2022-00594.

The Republican Party, which filed the lawsuit, will appeal. The party already filed this case in the State Supreme Court, but the State Supreme Court said the case had to begin with a Superior Court.

When postal ballot first began in certain other states, decades ago, there was a vigorous legal campaign to invalidate it, on the grounds that when voters handle ballots at home, inevitably some voters will let other individuals watch them vote. But all those earlier lawsuits lost, and since then, postal ballots have become strongly entrenched in public acceptance.

Federal Court Won’t Require Virginia to Hold Legislative Elections This Year

Posted on by June 7, 2022
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On June 6, a 3-judge U.S. District Court issued an opinion in Goldman v Brink, e.d., 3:21cv-420. This is the case over whether Virginia is violating the U.S. Constitution by using legislative districts based on the 2010 census, instead of the 2020 census, until the November 2023 election.

Virginia elects legislators in odd years. Of course new districts based on the 2020 census couldn’t have been used for the regularly-scheduled November 2021 election, because the census data was late, due to covid. The issue was whether Virginia should hold special elections in November 2022 using districts based on the 2020 census.

The court said the plaintiff lacks standing, because it happens he lives in a district in which the population is smaller than the ordinary district. Therefore he can’t argue that he is being personally harmed. If he had lived in an over-populated district, the case could have proceeded to the merits. The plaintiff claimed he had standing as a potential legislative candidate, but he didn’t actually get on the ballot in 2021, nor did he appear to make concrete plans to run in a potential 2022 election either. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.

Michigan Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Files Federal Lawsuit to Regain Spot on Primary Ballot

Posted on by June 6, 2022
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On June 6, Perry Johnson, a Republican gubernatorial candidate in Michigan, filed a federal lawsuit seeking to be put back on the August 2 primary ballot. Johnson v Michigan Board of State Canvassers, e.d., 2:22cv-11232. The issue is whether the state used due process when it invalidated his petition. He needed 15,000 signatures and he submitted 23,193. But the state determined that many of his petitioners committed fraud, and invalidated all of the signatures collected by those individuals, without checking each signature. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news. Here is the Complaint.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Mark A. Goldsmith.