On July 21, the Fourth Circuit issued an opinion in Baten v McMaster, 19-1297. This is one of the cases challenging a state’s practice of electing all its presidential electors at-large. Other such cases had recently been filed in Texas, California, and Massachusetts. None of them ever received support from any judge, until this decision came out. Judge James A. Wynn dissented, and wrote a lengthy dissent explaining why the case should have won. Here is the 65-page decision. The dissent begins on page 29. Judge Wynn argues that the precedents on this issue do not control this case.

Judge Wynn is an Obama appointee from North Carolina. He had previously written a Fourth Circuit opinion striking down North Carolina’s districts as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, but the U.S. Supreme Court had reversed.

On July 23, President Donald Trump announced that the Republican Party has cancelled the second half of its national convention, which was to have been in Jacksonville August 25-27. The only national convention will be the meeting of August 24 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Only six delegates from each state and territory will conduct the business on August 24.

This is the first time that a major party presidential convention has been limited to only one day since 1864, when both major parties held one-day conventions.

This People Magazine story says several individuals are expected to challenge Kanye West’s independent presidential petition.