Andrew Yang Sues to Restore New York Democratic Presidential Primary

Posted on by April 28, 2020
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On April 28, Andrew Yang sued New York over the cancellation of the state’s presidential primary. Yang v New York State Board of Elections, s.d., 1:20cv-3325.

The complaint is technically flawed. Under the Eleventh Amendment, the defendant can’t be solely a state or a state agency. The defendants must include some individual state office-holders. However, it is easy at this stage for the complaint to be amended. Also, the Complaint is dated April 28, 2011, but the authors of the complaint clearly meant to show April 28, 2020. Thanks to Political Wire for this news. The case is not yet assigned to a judge.

Proponents of Four Massachusetts Initiative Campaigns Ask State Supreme Judicial Court to Allow Electronic Signatures

Posted on by April 28, 2020
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Four groups sponsoring statewide Massachusetts initiatives have asked the State Supreme Judicial Court to let them gather electronic signatures. The groups only need another 13,347 valid signatures. Massachusetts initiative procedures provide that if a group collects the signatures of 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote, the legislature must consider the idea behind the initiative. If the legislature refuses to enact the idea, they then need more signatures, but of only one-half of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote.

In all four cases, the legislature has not enacted the idea, and probably won’t by the early May deadline. So the four campaigns need a relatively small number of signatures to finish the job, but they feel they cannot finish unless electronic signatures are recognized. See this story.

Michigan Secretary of State Appears to Accept Decision that Lowered Primary Petition Requirements

Posted on by April 28, 2020
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The Michigan Secretary of State has not appealed to the Sixth Circuit in Esshaki v Whitman, the case over whether primary petition signature requirements should be cut by 50%. Although technically there is still time for the state to appeal, realistically there is not.

The U.S. District Court Judge denied the state’s request for reconsideration on Saturday, April 25, and the state has not since then filed anything in the case.