On January 31, U.S. District Court Judge Yvette Kane issued a temporary restraining order against the Pennsylvania law that won’t let out-of-state circulators work for Democratic presidential primary candidates. However, it only applies to the plaintiffs, a paid petitioning company called Accelerate 2020 and Joe Pool. Accelerate 2020 v Boockvar, m.d., 1:20cv-128. Here is the eight-page order.

The case had been filed January 24, 2020, and a conference with the judge had been held January 30. This decision was made possible by the victory earlier this month in a similar case filed in 2016, Benezet v Cortes.

On January 30, U.S. District Court Judge Orlando Garcia, a Clinton appointee, ruled that Texas has not been obeying the federal “Motor Voter” Law, and ordered the state to register the plaintiffs who had filed the lawsuit. The federal law says that when unregistered individuals interact with a state agency, they must be given the opportunity to register to vote, or to update their address. The order finds that Texas has not been doing this for people who update their address for drivers licenses on-line. Stringer v Cascos, w.d., 5:16cv-257. The case was filed in 2016.

On January 31, Congressman John Delaney of Maryland withdrew from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Delaney had introduced a bill to impose a top-two system for the entire nation, for congressional races. He might have had a personal interest in promoting a top-two system. In November 2014, there were three candidates on the ballot in his Sixth District race. The results were: Delaney 94,704; the Republican nominee 91,930; Green Party nominee George Gluck 3,762. In a top-two system, Gluck would not have been on the ballot.

I wrote him several times about a top-two system, but he never answered my letters.