U.S. District Court Extends Wisconsin Deadline to Register to Vote

Posted on by March 22, 2020
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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.

Rocky De La Fuente Has Minnesota Oral Argument in U.S. District Court on March 24

Posted on by March 22, 2020
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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.

U.S. District Court Upholds Unequal Montana Distribution Requirement for Party Petitions

Posted on by March 22, 2020
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Montana requires petitions to qualify a new party to submit 5,000 signatures. In addition, the petition must include a certain number of signatures from at least one-third of the 100 state house districts. The house districts are all of approximate equal population, but the law requires a range of between 55 and 150 signatures from each of the house districts for which signatures are submitted.

On March 20, U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris, an Obama appointee, upheld this law, in a case filed in 2018, Montana Green Party v Stapleton, 6:18cv-87. The judge cited two cases upholding distribution requirements, but those cases, from Colorado and Missouri, do not deal with unequal distribution requirements. They both include equal population units, and the number of signatures needed in each unit is the same (either an identical number of signatures, or percentage of some base such as the number of votes cast or the number of registered voters).

The U.S. Supreme Court in 1969 settled that when distribution requirements are unequal, they are unconstitutional. Since then unequal distribution requirements have been struck down in 15 other cases, most recently in Pennsylvania. The Montana Green Party decision will be appealed to the 9th circuit. Here is the 15-page opinion. The case had originally been in front of a magistrate judge, and he also had made the same legal errors. The magistrate judge didn’t even mention the U.S. Supreme Court decision from 1969 on this issue. The U.S. District Court judge did mention it, but he didn’t discuss its holding.