U.S. District Court Judge Algernon Marbley will hear oral arguments in Libertarian Party of Ohio v Taveras on Monday, November 25, at 9:30 a.m. This is the case in which the party challenges the composition of the Ohio Elections Commission. No one is ever allowed to be appointed to that commission who is a member of a party other than the Democratic and Repuublican Parties.
Twenty-four Pennsylvania Libertarians were elected to local partisan offices on November 5, 2019. They consisted of four Borough Council seats, and twenty Township Auditors. These were all unopposed.
The council seats were won by Joshua Sloan (Baily Borough in Berks County); Mitchell Bailey and Matthew C. Welch (Birdsboro Borough in Berks County); and Terry Mohler (Kenhorst Borough in Berks County).
The Township Auditors include five in Berks County, four in Chester County, two in Cumberland County, three in Dauphin County, one in Lancaster County, two in Perry County, and three in Bucks County. They are Jessie Hodge in Exeter Township, Peter Schwarze in Jefferson Township, Peter Snow in Longswamp Township, Alexander Platz in Lower Alsace Township, Kristi Lee Duffy in Maidencreek Township, Scott R. Belles in Birmingham Township, Ayoade Ojikutu in East Fallowfield Township, Jeffrey Sullivan and Richard Huey in Schuykill Township, Alexander Houck in Southampton Township, Craig Patton in Upper Frankford Township, Joshua Watts in Jefferson Township, Jessica Hanwell in Middle Paxton Township, Michael Robertson in West Hanover Township, Steven Rosenshine in Mount Joy Township, Heather Simpson in Juniata Township, William Shedd in Wheatfield Township, Alexander Barenbaum in Solebury Township, Nicole Tartaglia in Solebury Township, and Andrew Farese in Durham Township.
Thanks to Wes Benedict for the list.
This article describes the process by which North Carolina legislators are working to create new U.S. House district boundaries. The filing period for the March 2020 primary is December 2, so there is a time urgency.
An initiative is about to start circulating in Oregon, for a nonpartisan redistricting commission. See this story. The Commission would be composed of four Democrats, four Republicans, and four individuals who were not a member of either of those parties.
In 2016, a Democratic candidate for Illinois State House sued Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, over Madigan’s action in recruiting two Hispanic-surnamed opponents to enter the race for the Democratic nomination for Madigan’s seat. The plaintiff, Jason Gonzales, was also running in the Democratic primary against Madigan. He presented evidence that incumbent Madigan had recruited the two other candidates in order to split the vote of people who wanted to vote for a Hispanic-surnamed candidate.
Under an old Seventh Circuit precedent, recruiting sham candidates in a primary to split the vote violates voting rights. Madigan won the current case in U.S. District Court in September 2019, but Gonzales then asked for reconsideration on September 20, 2019, and it is still pending. Judge Matthew Kennelly asked Madigan to respond to the rehearing request, and that response was received October 11, 2019.
