As of Monday afternoon, September 22, Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe still hasn’t signed HB 1, the bill for different U.S. House districts. The bill was presented to him on September 12.
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On September 19, North Dakota filed this brief in Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians v Howe, 25-253. This is a case over legislative redistricting. The Eighth Circuit had said the lawsuit couldn’t proceed because it had started when the Turtle Mountain Band had filed under the federal Voting Rights Act, section 2, but that the Eighth Circuit thought that private groups can’t file under that law; only the federal government could institute such lawsuits. No Circuit had ever before come to that conclusion.
The North Dakota brief acknowledges that the U.S. Supreme Court will need to settle this important issue, but suggests that the Court should not take this case. But it says if the Court does take it, he hopes the Court will decide by December 31, 2025, whether to take it, because the state needs to know in order to prepare for the 2026 election.
Arkansas has always had open primaries. But starting in 2026, registered Democrats won’t be able to vote in Republican primaries. Several years ago the state added a question about party membership to the voter registration form. The vast majority of Arkansas voters haven’t had to use the new form, so they continue to be unaffiliated with any party. But the Arkansas Republican Party recently passed a rule that says people who have registered with a party can’t vote in future Republican primaries, unless of course they had joined the Republican Party.
There are 86,497 registered Democrats, 742 registered Libertarians, and 120 registered Greens, and they won’t be able to vote in future Republican primaries. However, they can change their registration at any time, even as late as primary day.
Here is a sample ballot for the November 4, 2025 New Jersey election. It is from Monmouth County. Almost all New Jersey counties are continuing to use the same discriminatory ballot format that was enjoined in New Jersey primaries. Note that the Democratic Party column and the Republican Party column each have that party’s name in big print. But the columns that have other nominees are headed with “Nomination by Petition”, a label that conveys no political meaning.
Also the same column that has the Socialist Workers Party candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor also includes an independent candidate for County Clerk, even though the two sets of candidates have nothing to do with each other.
Here is a very similar Bergen County ballot. Here is a Cumberland County ballot, also similar except that the Libertarian candidates are in the third column.
By contrast, here is a Gloucester County ballot, which does not have party columns and prints all party labels in the same size font.
Missouri House Bill 1, the bill to redraw the U.S. House districts, still hasn’t been signed by Governor Mike Kehoe. Meanwhile, opponents of the bill have submitted the paperwork to begin circulating a referendum petition against the bill. If opponents get enough signatures, the bill can’t take effect until after voters vote on it in 2026. See this story.