According to this New York Times story, the Republican National Committee will decide at its February meeting whether to pass a rule, requiring its presidential nominee to boycott presidential debates sponsored by the Presidential Debate Commission. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link. UPDATE: the national committee meeting is February 1-4.
FURTHER UPDATE: see this story, which has some details that are not in the first link.
As previously reported, on January 5, the Eleventh Circuit reversed the lower court and upheld the Georgia 5% petition requirement for U.S. House, even though it has existed since 1943 and no minor party candidate has ever managed to comply with the law. On January 12, the party filed a motion with the Eleventh Circuit, asking for a time extension to file for a rehearing before all the full-time judges of the Eleventh circuit. The state does not oppose the time extension. UPDATE: on February 13 the time extension was granted. The new deadline is February 23.
On January 12, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected the new legislative redistricting plan. League of Women Voters of Ohio v Ohio Redistricting Commission, 2022-Oh-65. The Ohio Constitution, ever since 2015, has said that the districts must be fair to all political parties. The Court found the plan was not fair to the Democratic Party. Here is the opinion, which is very long. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for the link. The vote was 4-3.
On January 11, the Maine Green Party asked U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker for the same ballot access relief that he had granted to the Libertarian Party, relative to petitions for candidates to get on primary ballots. See this filing. Baines v Bellows, 1:19cv-509.
Florida holds a special U.S. House election on January 11 to fill the vacant 20th district seat. There are five candidates on the ballot: a Democrat, a Republican, a Libertarian, and two independents. Here is a link to the election returns on the Secretary of State’s website.
