Effective in 2021, New York city uses ranked choice voting for partisan primaries, and also for special elections for city office. On December 16, a state trial court refused to stop the city from using RCV in a February 2 special election. The lawsuit had been filed by opponents of RCV. They argued that the voters don’t know how to use the system. They are appealing the decision. See this story.
UncoverDC has this article, published December 17, about the November 2020 California ballots. In 53 of the 58 counties, the ballot did not mention the words “presidential electors” in the presidential part of the ballot. State law says the ballots must advise the voters that they are about to cast a ballot for presidential electors. But 53 counties did not do so. UPDATE: here is another story, which shows the San Joaquin County sample ballot.
On December 14, Fairvote filed this amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Level the Playing Field v Federal Election Commission, 20-649. This is the case over general election presidential debates.
On December 16, the Sixth Circuit heard Graveline v Benson, 20-1337. This is the challenge to the number of signatures needed in Michigan for a statewide independent candidate. It was filed in 2018 by Christopher Graveline, an independent candidate for Attorney General. The law required 30,000 signatures. The courts in 2018 enjoined the law and put him on the ballot. Now the panel will decide whether the 30,000 requirement is too difficult. Here is a link to the oral argument. It seems somewhat likely that there will be a split decision. The same three judges who issued the injunction in 2018 are on the same panel now, and because the vote was 2-1 to put Graveline on the ballot, the vote will probably also be 2-1 to declare the requirement unconstitutional. Here is a Courthouse News Service story about the oral argument.
The Georgia Secretary of State has released vote totals for the declared write-in presidential candidates. See the state total here. Thanks to Bryce Wargin for the link.
