On April 29, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued an opinion, authorizing electronic signatures for initiative petitions. See this story. The order doesn’t seem to be on the Court’s webpage yet. When it is, this blog post will be amended to include a link to the decision. The case is Dennis v Galvin, SJ-2020-278.
As already noted, on April 15, the Sixth Circuit agreed with the U.S. District Court that the Michigan nonpartisan redistricting commission is constitutional. The Republican Party, which had challenged the commission, says it will ask for a rehearing en banc. Normally that would have been due April 29, but the party won permission to file by May 13. Daunt v Benson, 19-2377.
This story says the Republican Party is thinking about changing its presidential convention to allow only delegates and alternates into the hall. The convention is set for August 24-27. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
On April 30, the Bread and Roses Party announced that its 2020 vice-presidential nominee will be John de Graaf of Seattle, a documentary filmmaker and author. Here is his web page.
The presidential nominee of the Bread and Roses Party is Jerome Segal. The party is only on the ballot in Maryland.
On April 29, several independent candidates filed a lawsuit to cut the number of signatures and obtain a later deadline. The lead plaintiff, Dan Whitfield, needs 10,000 signatures by May 1. He is running for U.S. Senate. He is over halfway with his drive, because he has been working on it since late last year. Whitfield v Thurston, e.d., 4:20cv-466. Here is the Complaint.
The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Kristine Baker, the same judge who struck down the Arkansas 3% petition for newly-qualifying parties last year.
