Many organizations in Florida are asking the Governor Florida to veto SB 1794, which makes it much more difficult for initiatives to get on the statewide ballot. See this story.
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The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering whether to hear Elster v City of Seattle, 19-608. The Court had this case on its March 20 conference, but on March 18, the Court said it would instead consider it at some later conference; the date for that future conference has not yet been decided.
The issue is the Seattle city policy of issuing campaign finance vouchers to every registered voter. The voter can use them to help his or her favorite candidate for city office. The voter gives the candidate a voucher, and then that candidate can turn it in for money for the campaign. The city pays for this program with a tax. The opponents of the system say it violates the First Amendment by forcing taxpayers to subsidize speech they disagree with. The Washington State Supreme Court had upheld the program.
On March 20, U.S. District Court Judge William M. Conley, an Obama appointee, granted injunctive relief in a lawsuit filed by the Democratic National Committee, and extended the deadline for Wisconsin voters to register to vote on-line from March 18 to March 30. Democratic National Committee v Bostelmann, w.d., 3:20cv-249.
Wisconsin holds an election April 7, 2020. Voters were always free to register at the polls on election day, or to register by appearing physically at certain types of government office. But many unregistered voters now seek to register on-line, to avoid going out in public. The state argued it would be too burdensome to re-do the voter registration software, but the judge said he thinks the state can comply.
The Republican National Committee asked that this ruling be delayed to give them more time to intervene in this case on the side of the state, but the judge refused to delay his order. Here is the 21-page order. The judge declined at this time to suspend the requirement for photocopies of proof of residency to be submitted with voter registration requests.
Max Abramson, a New Hampshire state representative, recently withdrew from the Libertarian Party’s presidential race. Thanks to Independent Political Report for this news.
On Tuesday, March 24, U.S. District Court Judge David Doty will hear De La Fuente v Simon, 0:19cv-2995. This case was originally filed by Rocky De La Fuente to challenge the Minnesota law that lets parties decide which presidential primary candidates may appear on their ballots. Since then the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld that same law. Now De La Fuente wants to convert his federal case to a challenge of the residency requirement for presidential elector candidates, but the state says if he wants to do that, he should file a new lawsuit.