On December 6, New Mexico State Senator Jacob Candelaria announced that he had changed his registration from “Democratic” to “independent.” See this story.
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On December 6, the U.S. Department of Justice filed its own federal lawsuit against the new Texas U.S. House and State House district boundaries. There were already six or seven other lawsuits pending against the Texas redistricting plans. This one is U.S. v State of Texas, w.d., 3:21cv-299. Here is the Complaint.
Even if you don’t intend to read the Complaint, it is worthwhile to scroll through it to see some of the maps, especially the Dallas area U.S. House district maps on page 18.
The lawsuit charges Texas with violating section 2 of the federal voting rights act.
On December 6, the North Carolina State Court of Appeals issues a two-page order. It says election boards should not allow primary candidates to file for U.S. House or state legislature at this time. Without this order, filing would have begun today at noon.
The lawsuit that brought about this order is North Carolina League of Conservation Voters v Hall, P21-525. It was filed earlier this year, and argues that the new U.S. House and legislative districts represent an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and also an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. The case is based mostly on the state constitution. Thanks to Political Wire for this news.
On December 1, 2021, Jill Stein, Green Party presidential nominee in 2016, filed a Statement of Issues in the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit. She is asking the Court to amend or reverse the Federal Election Commission decision earlier this year that she must repay $175,272 in 2016 primary season matching funds. See it here.
The text of the Missouri top-four initiative can be seen here, from the Secretary of State’s website. It is initiative 2022-051.
The initiative also deals with vote-counting equipment. Missouri requires initiatives to be single-subject.
An earlier version of the initiative provided that party labels should not be on ballots, but the latest version does permit party labels.