The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Colorado Department of State v Baca, 19-518, at its January 10, 2020 conference. This is the case on “faithless electors” from Colorado.
The Court had already set a conference date of December 13, 2019, for the other such case, the one from Washington state, Chiafalo v Washington, 19-465.
Missouri legislators have already started introducing bills for 2020. Representative Dan Stacy (R-Blue Springs) has introduced HB 1258. It changes Missouri primaries from open to closed. He introduced the same bill in 2019, HB 26, and it passed the House, but not the Senate. Thanks to Ken Bush for this news.
The Oklahoma State Board of Elections has this list of presidential primary candidates. Although Kamala Harris is on the Democratic list, she withdrew from the Oklahoma primary on December 4, so there will be fourteen Democrats and six Republicans. No one filed in the Libertarian primary.
The North Carolina deadline for qualified parties to tell the state which presidential candidates to list on primary ballots has passed. However, the State Board of Elections has the power to add the names of any presidential candidates who weren’t already listed by their party, so the list is not yet complete. Also anyone who submits 10,000 signatures of party members can be added.
The Republican Party submitted only Donald J. Trump.
The Democratic Party submitted 15 names: Michael Bennet, Joseph R. Biden, Michael R. Bloomberg, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, John K. Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Amy Klobuchar, Deral Patrick, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren, Marianne Williamson, and Andrew Yang.
The Libertarian Party submitted 16 names: Max Abramson, Ken Armstrong, Dan Taxation is Theft Behrman, Kenneth Blevins, Souraya Faas, Erik Gerhardt, Jedidiah Hill, Jacob Hornberger, Jo Jorgenson, Adam Kokesh, John McAfee, James Ogle, Steve Richey, Kim Ruff, Vermin Supreme, and Arvin Vohra.
The Green Party submitted only Howie Hawkins.
The Constitution Party submitted Don Blankenship and Charles Kraut. Thanks to Donald Triplett for this news.
On December 4, Colorado filed this Reply brief in Colorado Dept. of State v Baca, 19-518. This is the case over whether presidential electors are free to vote for any qualified candidate when they cast a vote in the electoral college. It is somewhat odd that Colorado felt the need to file a reply brief, because both sides want the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. Since the whole purpose of the briefs at this state concern whether the Court should hear the case, one would think there is no need for a Reply brief.
But Colorado wanted to again say that the case should revolve on whether the Democratic “disobedient” electors who brought the case had standing.
