There are approximately eight lawsuits against the Texas U.S. House and state legislative district boundaries, mostly in federal court. But from the filings so far, it appears the plaintiffs will not seek a postponement of the March 2022 primary. Instead, if they prevail, they will probably depend on past Texas precedents when the boundaries of many districts changed after that year’s primary was over. In those cases, the primary results for the districts whose boundaries changed were set aside. Instead, candidate filing re-opened in those districts, and the winners were determined in November as though they were special elections. In Texas special elections, there are no party nominees. Everyone runs in the election, and if no one gets 50%, there is a run-off.

In 1996 in Texas, 13 of the U.S. House districts (out of 30 districts) used the special election procedures. The boundaries of the 1990’s districts had been changed after the 1996 primary by a federal court. Someone got over 50% in November in most of those districts. In the three districts in which no one got 50% in November, there was a run-off on December 10, 1996. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.

According to this Independent Political Report story, the Forward Party is likely to nominate Brian Mannix for U.S. House in 2022, in New York’s Eighth District.

The hostile ballot access changes in New York state in 2020 did not impact candidates for district office. Mannix will need 3,500 signatures collected in six weeks between March and May. The 2020 change raise the statewide petition from 15,000 to 45,000, but did not alter the district petition requirements.

The Kansas City Star has this op-ed by Larry R. Bradley about the initiative for a top-four system currently circulating in Missouri. Bradley supports ranked choice voting, but he criticizes the initiative, both because it eliminates the ability of parties to have nominees, and also because it seems obvious that if ranked choice voting is so good, it should be used in primaries as well as general elections.

Bradley does not mention another flaw in the initiative, which is that it makes it almost impossible for a third party to become or remain ballot-qualified. This is because if parties don’t have nominees (except for president), they can’t meet the vote test, except for president. Currently the typical minor party that gets on the ballot in Missouri is able to remain on, because it isn’t that difficult for a minor party to poll 2% for one of the lesser statewide races, such as Auditor or Treasurer. But under the initiative, the only office for which the vote test would still work is president, and it’s extremely difficult for minor parties to poll 2% for president. The Libertarian Party has only done it once (2016). The Green Party has only done it once (2000). The Constitution Party has never done it.