On August 14, the California Assembly Appropriations Committee passed SB 212. Currently, only charter cities and charter counties in California may use ranked choice voting for their own elections. The bill extends that to all local governments. Thanks to Steve Chessin for this news.
On August 14, James Hall, the independent candidate for U.S. House in an Alabama special election in 2003, filed this reply brief in the U.S. Supreme Court. Hall v Merrill, 18-1362.
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Hall v Merrill, 18-1362, on October 1, 2019. This is the Alabama ballot access case in which a U.S. District Court struck down the 3% petition for independent candidates for U.S. House in special elections, given that the petitioning time is so short. Afterwards, the Eleventh Circuit said the U.S. District Court should not have ruled, because the election was over. The U.S. Supreme Court said in 1969 that constitutional ballot access cases are not moot just because the election is over. But the Eleventh Circuit said the rule is different for special elections. There is no other precedent that comes to that conclusion, and the Eleventh Circuit opinion is in conflict with precedents from almost all other circuits.
The Upstate Jobs Party, a New York party that is not ballot-qualified, has some nominees in the 2019 local partisan elections. It has filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court, Onondaga County, over the law that says its nominees can’t have their own square on the ballot if they are also the nominees of a qualified party. See this story. Unqualified parties do get their own square on the ballot for Governor and legislature, but not for most partisan office, when they nominate someone who is also the nominee of a qualified party.
The case is Upstate Jobs Party v Czarny, 7058-2019. Here is the Complaint.
Jeremy B. White here writes for Politico that a side effect of the California tax returns-ballot bill, if it is not invalidated in court, would be to lower Republican turnout in the March 2020 primary. Because California has its primary for all office in March, and because the top-two system requires Republicans for Congress and partisan state office to place first or second in March, Republican turnout (without Trump on its presidential primary ballot) could be depressed, which in turn would damage Republicans running for Congress and state legislature. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
