On March 28, Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill, a Democrat, asked the Governor to suspend the need for petitions for the general election, for parties that are already ballot-qualified for at least one statewide office. Connecticut is unique in that qualified status is office-by-office. Parties that polled 1% for a particular office in the last election are on the ballot automatically, but just for that one office.

The Secretary of State’s recommendation would allow the Working Families, Independent, Green, and Libertarian Parties to be on the ballot for all partisan office, instead of just the offices for which they polled 1% in the last election. Here is the letter.

On March 31, the Eleventh Circuit refused to rehear Jones v DeSantis, 19-14551. Back on February 19, the Eleventh Circuit had agreed with a U.S. District Court that Florida cannot prevent ex-felons from registering to vote, if they cannot afford to pay restitution, court costs, or fines.

Alabama had organized an amicus brief from nine other states, urging the Eleventh Circuit to rehear the case. Besides Alabama, the other states were Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah.

Now Florida will be required to set up some procedure for ex-felons to show that they cannot afford to pay. One million individuals are affected by this court decision. So far the court order only applies to the particular individuals who filed the lawsuit, but a trial next month will probably expand the ruling to every potential individual. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.

On March 30, U.S. House member Mark Meadows resigned his seat in the North Carolina 11th district. Probably his seat will now remain vacant until either November 2020 or January 2021. There might be a special election in November 2020 to fill the seat for the two-month period until January 2021.

Theoretically a special election could be called earlier, but the state is not likely to do that, because the law would also require primaries, and possibly even a run-off primary, and all that is expensive.