On December 10, some independent voters in Pennsylvania filed a new lawsuit against closed primaries. They earlier filed a case in State Supreme Court but that Court refused to hear it. Therefore, they are starting over in a lower court, the Commonwealth Court. Smerconish v Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Here is the Complaint.
The U.S. Supreme Court is now on vacation, and won’t return until Friday, January 9, 2026.
Arizona representative Alex Kolodin has introduced HB 2022. It moves the non-presidential primaries from the last Tuesday in August to the last Tuesday in July.
Arizona ties the petition deadline for new parties to the date of the primaries, so if this bill passes, the deadline for a new party moves from November of the year before the election, to October of the year before the election. The existing deadline is ludicrous, and this bill would make it even more absurd.
On December 10, the Maine Secretary of State released new registration data. Maine doesn’t tally registrations very often. This was the first tally since the February 8, 2025 tally.
New percentages: Democratic 33.94%; Republican 29.73%; Green 3.60%; Libertarian .66%; independent and other 32.08%.
In February 2025, the percentages had been: Democratic 34.27%; Republican 29.87%; Green 3.62%; No Labels 1.65%; Libertarian .59%; independent and other 30.00%. Since the February tally, No Labels removed itself from the ballot and all its registrants were converted to independents.
On December 11, the Indiana Senate defeated HB 1032, the bill to redraw the U.S. House district boundaries. See this story. The vote was 19-31.
The bill had passed the House on December 5 by a vote of 57-41.
