On May 6, Monmouth University Polls released a poll for the presidential election.
See it here. Scroll down to question 31 to see the results. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
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This article explains that an initiative in Illinois to create a nonpartisan redistricting commission has stalled, due to the health crisis. However, the article does not say that it is still possible a U.S. District Court in Chicago will give the organizers of initiatives some relief. The case is Morgan v White, n.d., 1:20cv-2189. U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer initially denied relief, but since then she has signaled that she is reconsidering. A hearing will be held Thursday, May 7.
On May 5, the Sixth Circuit issued an order in Esshaki v Whitmer, 20-1336, the case over whether the Michigan primary petition requirements were too severe this year due to the health crisis. The panel agreed that the original requirement was too difficult to be constitutional for 2020. But it said that the U.S. District Court should merely have ruled that it was too difficult, and let the state decide what to replace it with.
The majority decision is not signed, but was authored by either Judge Alice M. Batchelder, a Bush Sr. appointee; or Judge John K. Bush, a Trump appointee. The third judge, Jane B. Stranch, an Obama appointee, felt the U.S. District Court acted appropriately when he set a new petition standard of 50% of the original requirement. Judge Stranch’s dissent is longer than the majority order, and cites many instances when the U.S. Supreme Court approved lower court orders that imposed specific policies (to be in place temporarily) when the old law was invalidated.
On May 5, U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres, an Obama appointee, ordered the New York State Board of Elections to proceed with the Democratic presidential primary. Yang v Kellner, s.d., 1:20cv-3325. The lawsuit had been filed by Andrew Yang, some of his candidates for delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and some voters who want to vote for him, even though he has suspended his campaign.
The decision points out that delegates have other duties than just choosing a presidential nominee. They help write the party platform and can and do interact with the presumptive presidential nominee to influence him or her on the coming campaign. See page 21 of the decision.
New York’s government said it cancelled the primary because of the health crisis. The decision says that reason is not convincing, because in most counties, there was going to be a primary (for office other than president) on the same day, June 23, anyway. Thanks to Political Wire for this news.
The Eleventh Circuit will hear Cowen v Raffensperger, 19-14065, on Friday, May 22. This is the case filed in 2017 against the Georgia petition requirement for independent and minor party candidates for U.S. House.
The 5% (of the number of registered voters) requirement has existed for U.S. House since 1943. No minor party has ever complied with it in 77 years. No independent has complied with it since 1964, and back then the petition validity wasn’t checked, no district crossed county lines, and the petition deadline was in October.
Nevertheless, the U.S. District Court had upheld it in 2019.
The three judges will be Adalberto Jordan, Gerald Tjoflat, and R. Lanier Anderson. The hearing will be by telephone.