Pennsylvania still hasn’t drawn new U.S. House districts. Although the legislature had passed a plan, the Governor had vetoed it. Therefore, the State Supreme Court appears to be getting ready to draw the districts.

On February 11, some Pennsylvania voters filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that it would violate the U.S. Constitution to let the State Supreme Court draw the districts. The Complaint argues that Article One gives state legislatures sole authority to write state election laws governing congressional elections, except that Congress can override state election laws affecting congressional elections. The Complaint also points to a very old federal law that says when a state loses a seat in the U.S. House, and fails to redistrict, all U.S. House members from that state should be elected at-large, until there is a redistricting plan.

The case is Toth v Chapman, m.d., 1:22cv-208. It is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer P. Wilson, a Trump appointee.

Normally, Pennsylvania candidates seeking a spot on a primary ballot must petition inside a 3-week window. This year, the State Elections office wants to cut that period to just two weeks. Yet the office doesn’t recommend that the number of signatures be any less. See this story.

In Pennsylvania, only parties with at least 15% registration membership are entitled to have primaries, so this problem only affects Republicana and Democrats.

On February 15, the Tennessee Senate State & Local Government passed SB 2616 by a vote of 5-1. It says that political parties cannot nominate anyone for either house of congress, if that person had not voted in Tennessee in each of the last three statewide general elections. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for this news.