On February 20, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed HB 29, which moves the 2026 primary (but not future primaries) from June to August 4. Normally, Virginia requires non-presidential minor party and independent candidate petitions to be filed on primary day. But the bill says that in 2026, the statewide petition deadline will continue to be June 16. The only statewide office up this year is U.S. Senate.

This policy appears to be unconstitutional. The Fourth Circuit has said several times that petition deadlines can’t be earlier than primary date or the day before the primary. In Virginia the Fourth Circuit case was Wood v Meadows, 207 F 3d 708 (2000). In North Carolina, which is also in the Fourth Circuit, a similar decision is Buscemi v Bell, 964 F.3d 252.

The Virginia legislature moved the 2026 primary to August so as to give more time for a vote on a redistricting measure. However, the August primary date for 2026 is settled, regardless of whether that proposed ballot measures goes before the voters or not.

The bill moves the independent petition deadline for U.S. House to August 4.

On February 26, eight former high-ranking U.S. Department of Justice officials filed this amicus curiae brief in Pitts v U.S., n.d. of Georgia, 1:26cv-809. This is the lawsuit over the validity of the FBI raid that seized Fulton County, Georgia 2020 ballots and other election records. See page 12 and following pages for a description of flaws in the search warrant.

William Weld is one of the signers.

On February 25, the Ohio House passed SB 63, which stops local governments from using Ranked Choice Voting for elections for their own officers. Technically the bill doesn’t outlaw RCV; it just says that any local government that uses it loses state funding. The vote was 65-27. Two Democrats, Representatives Lauren McNally and Daniel Troy, voted for the bill. Otherwise it was a party-line vote.

No local government in Ohio uses Ranked Choice Voting. It is ironic that Ohio’s legislature has passed this bill. In the 1920’s Ohio was a pioneer in the use of alternative voting systems.