Courthouse News Service has this article about the oral argument in the Eleventh circuit on Tuesday, August 24, in Libertarian Party of Alabama v Merrill, 20-13356. This is the case in which the Libertarian Party challenges Alabama’s policy of giving a free list of the registered voters to the Democratic and Republican Parties, but charging approximately $36,000 for parties that are trying to get on the ballot. The Alabama Libertarian Party is trying to get on the 2022 ballot.

The article would have been better if it had told its readers that in 1970, the U.S. Supreme Court summarily affirmed a decision of a 3-judge court from New York, that said if the state gives a free list of the voters to the qualified parties, it must also give the list to unqualified parties that are trying to get on the ballot. That case was Socialist Workers Party v Rockefeller, affirmed, 400 U.S. 806.

The Eleventh Circuit has three states, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Florida gives the list to anyone who asks for it, with no charge. Georgia only charges $50 for its list. These days a single CD can include the entire list, so the cost to provide the list is trivial.

On August 23, the Wyoming Secretary of State filed a notice of appeal in Frank v Buchanan, the U.S. District Court decision that struck down the law barring petitioning or distributing information about election candidates within 300 feet of a polling place. Most states have a 100 foot boundary. The case number in the Tenth Circuit is 21-8060.

According to this story, proponents of an initiative to allow early voting have begun their drive to collect signatures, even though earlier this year the Mississippi Supreme Court invalidated the statewide initiative process. The proponents of the initiative hope that the legislature will repair the initiative process, either in a special session this year, or in the regular session in 2022. The legislature can fix the problem if it wishes to. It could pass a law saying that for the purposes of the congressional district distribution requirement for initiatives, the five districts that existed in the past are to be used. The state election code still has the boundaries of the five congressional districts, even though the state only has four congressional districts. The boundaries of the current four districts were drawn by a court in 2001.