On March 23, the Ohio Libertarian Party, which is intervening in the lawsuit State ex rel Democratic Party v LaRose, 2020-388, filed this brief in the Ohio Supreme Court. The brief argues that it was unlawful for Secretary of State Frank LaRose to stop the March 17 primary from going forward. He took that action on March 16.
The Ohio Libertarian Party is ballot-qualified and the law requires it to nominate by primary. UPDATE: Here is the Ohio Democratic Party’s brief.
Illinois law requires candidates for state office (including all three branches of state government) to file Statements of Economic Interest during election years. On March 17, Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker issued Executive Order No. 8. Among other things, in section two it suspends this requirement for the next few months. See section 2 in the “therefore” section.
Executive Order No. 5 bans gatherings greater than 50 people.
But no order suspended the need for petitions to get on the ballot. The Illinois primary for all partisan office was earlier this month, and all petitioning for the primary was completed late last year, so there is no longer any need for Republicans or Democrats to petition this year. But minor party and independent candidates circulate their petitions from March 24 through June 22. The Governor has been asked to do something about this problem, but so far he has not even mentioned it, as far as is known. Thanks to Vito Mastrangelo for the link.
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.
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.
