On December 19, Jill Stein filed this brief in Stein v Boockvar, e.d., 2:16cv-6287. This is the lawsuit filed in 2016 by Jill Stein against vote-counting machines in some Pennsylvania counties that did not have a paper trail. The state settled that lawsuit and agreed that all counties would soon have vote-counting machines that leave a paper trail, and also that allow a voter to see what votes that voter has just cast.

Stein re-opened the case when it became apparent that in some counties, the new technology still doesn’t allow a voter to see what votes that voter has just cast. In some counties the voter only sees a bar code, not the actual ballot.

On December 16, the Ninth Circuit said that the five federal cases over the California tax returns-ballot access law are moot. The Ninth Circuit order in all these combined cases says, “Because these appeals were mooted by the California Supreme Court’s decision in Patterson v Padilla, and not through any voluntary actions of the parties, we remand these matters to the district court with instruction to vacate the October 2, 2019 order.”

This means that the U.S. District Court order, finding that the California law keeping presidential primary candidates off ballots unless they reveal their income tax returns violates the U.S. Constitution, can’t be used as a precedent in future litigation. Here is the three-page order.

On December 16, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton, a Clinton appointee, refused to block a 2014 Arizona law that makes it more difficult for statewide initiatives to get on the ballot. The law says that after an initiative is submitted, if anyone challenges the sufficiency of that petition, any paid circulator or any out-of-state circulator who worked on the petition must appear in court to answer questions about their work. If they do not appear, then all the signatures they collected are deemed invalid.

The case against the law is still alive, but while the case continues, the law will be in effect. Here is the decision in Miracle v Hobbs, 2:19cv-4694. The restriction does not apply to petitions for candidates or new parties.