The New Hampshire legislature will appoint a conference committee for HB 98. This is the bill to move the non-presidential primary from September to some earlier month. The House wants it in June and wants it effective for 2022. The Senate wants it in August and doesn’t want the change to be in effect until 2024.
On June 11, the Elections Subcommittee of the House Administration Committee will hold a hearing on voting rights and HR 4, the John Lewis Act, which proposes that all state election law changes be submitted for review to the U.S. Justice Department. See this announcement from the subcommittee. The title of the hearing seems gramatically faulty. One wonders if someone forgot to insert “and” between “to Vote” and “to Interfere.” Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for this news. The hearing will be at 11:00 a.m. eastern.
On June 7, Michael Crowell voluntarily dismissed his lawsuit over the provision of North Carolina law that prohibits independent voters from serving on election boards. He did so because he recently was appointed to another state commission, and North Carolina law does not permit state officers to serve on election boards. Crowell v North Carolina Election Board, m.d., 1:17cv-515.
This case was four years old and had never received an opinion. One reason it was so prolonged is that everyone involved had been waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide Carney v Adams, a similar lawsuit from Delaware. But then the U.S. Supreme Court punted on that case, ruling that the plaintiff didn’t have standing because he hadn’t firmly said he wanted to be appointed, so that left the main issue unsettled.
The Eighth Circuit will hear Libertarian Party of Minnesota v Choi, 20-2244, on June 16. The issues are the language on the independent candidate petition that says the signer will not vote in the upcoming primary for the same office, and the two-week limit on gathering signatures for non-presidential independent candidate petitions.
The three judges are Raymond Gruender, a Bush Jr. appointee; Morris Arnold, a Bush Sr. appointee; and David Stras, a Trump appointee.
The lower court had upheld both provisions.
On June 7, the state of Georgia filed this brief in defense of the parts of the omnibus election law bill that have been attacked in court by various voting rights groups. Sixth District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church v Kemp, n.d., 1:21cv-1284.
