North Carolina State Court of Appeals is Pondering “Free” Phrase in State Constitution, and Whether it Prohibits Gerrymandering

Posted on by December 31, 2025
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The Carolina Journal has this interesting article about a pending lawsuit in the North Carolina State Court of Appeals, on whether the state constitution prohibits gerrymandering.  The state constitution says all elections shall be “free.”  Bard v North Carolina State Board of Elections, COA24-1109.

Thirty state constitutions say that elections must be free and equal, or sometimes they just say they must be “free”.  Generally lawsuits filed to strike down unfair election rules seldom win on the basis of that phrase.  Judges appear to find that it is too vague.

New York Republican Party Files Amended Complaint in Lawsuit Against Combining Most Local Elections with Congressional Elections

Posted on by December 31, 2025
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In 2023, the New York legislature passed a bill moving most local elections (but not New York City elections) from November of odd years, to November of even years.  A federal lawsuit against this law was filed in October 2025.  The plaintiffs have added many more co-plaintiffs since then, including many local governments.  On December 29 they filed an amended complaint reflecting the additional plaintiffs.  The first-named lawsuit continues to be the Republican Party of New York.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Gary R. Brown, a rare judge who was nominated by both a Democratic president and a Republican president.  President Obama first nominated him, but he didn’t get confirmed by the U.S. Senate.  But then President Trump also nominated him.

The case is New York Republican State Committee v Hochul, e.d., 2:25cv-6083.

The Complaint says that combining local elections with congressional elections will mean that voters won’t pay much attention to the local races, because the races for federal and state office will soak up all the attention.  There really is no precedent that combining local elections with federal and state elections violates the Constitution. The plaintiffs rely on the First Amendment.  Here is the amended complaint.

New York City Bill for Non-Partisan Elections for City Office

Posted on by December 31, 2025
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On December 18, New York City Councilmember Frank Morano introduced a bill to make elections for New York City office non-partisan.  No party labels would be on the ballot.  Ranked choice voting would be used.  There would be no primary.

Most cities in the U.S. use non-partisan elections for city office, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, San Diego, and Dallas.  New York City and Philadelphia are the only really populous cities that use partisan elections.

Thom Hartmann Blames Jill Stein for Donald Trump’s 2016 Win, But Ignores Evidence of Exit Polls

Posted on by December 31, 2025
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Thom Hartmann, a well-known host of a radio show about politics, and editor of The Hartmann Report, a daily newsletter about politics, said on December 30 that Donald Trump only won the presidency in 2016 because of Jill Stein’s Green Party candidacy.  He said, “Stein had no such moral compunction with her Green Party candidacy in 2016.  Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin provided Trump’s margin of victory in the Electoral College over Hillary Clinton that year, and, in each of the states, Stein polled more votes than Trump’s margin.”

Hartmann appears not to know about the 2016 exit polls, even though they have been widely reported.  The New York Times mentioned them in a 2023 article about Cornel West, and there are many other media mentions from late in 2016.  The exit pollsters asked Stein Voters whom they would have voted for if only Trump and Clinton had been on the ballot.  25% said they would have voted for Hillary Clinton, but 14% said they would have voted for Donald Trump.  Therefore, when one does the arithmetic, one finds that Stein voters did not change the electoral vote outcome in any state.

Maine Democratic and Republican Parties Don’t Want Their Member-Candidates to be Able to Get Primary Ballot Signatures from Independent Voters

Posted on by December 31, 2025
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a law passed in Maine  this year says each party decides for itself whether to let independent voters sign primary petitions for its own members.  A party that wants its candidates to be able to get signatures from independent voters must tell the Secretary of State by December 31 of the year before the election.

With only a few hours before the deadline, neither the Democratic nor Republican Parties has filed the form.  Unless there is a last minute filing, it appears the two major parties don’t want to let their candidates collect signatures from independent voters.

The other two qualified parties, Green and Libertarian, already filed the form earlier this month.  They do want their candidates to be free to get signatures from independent voters.