Voters in New York city will be voting on November 5, 2019, on a charter amendment for the city to use ranked choice voting for primaries and special elections. On October 15, the New York Times endorsed the ballot measure. See here. Thanks to Jason Aufdenberg for the link.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman will hear part of Miller v Hughes on Thursday, October 31. This is the Texas ballot access case filed by several minor parties earlier this year. The hearing will only be concerned with whether the new law on filing fees for convention parties should be enjoined for the 2020 election. It will be at 9 a.m. in Austin.
Two Connecticut Libertarian nominees for city office in Meridan were restored to the ballot on October 10, for the election of November 5, 2019. See this story. They had originally been removed for slightly irregular paperwork. They sued and then the Secretary of State reversed position and put them on the ballot.
On October 14, a Kentucky trial court enjoined new Kentucky procedures for handling inactive voters at the polls, for the gubernatorial election being held on November 5, 2019. Here is the order in Kentucky Democratic Party v State Board of Elections, Franklin Circuit, 19-CI-1043. The main basis seems to be that the change was made closer to the election than 90 days. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
The California Supreme Court has said it will hear oral argument in Patterson v Padilla, S257302, no later than the week of November 4-8, 2019. Conceivably it could be earlier. This is the case over whether the California Constitution permits the state to enforce its law that presidential primary candidates must reveal their tax returns. Patterson, the first-named plaintiff, is the state chair of the California Republican Party.
Although a U.S. District Court has enjoined that law on federal constitutional grounds, the state is appealing that to the Ninth Circuit. Therefore it is still sensible that the State Supreme Court will hear the state constitutional case. The state constitution says that all “recognized” presidential candidates (who are seeking the nomination of a qualified party) must appear on a presidential primary ballot.
