On May 3, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Kornmann held a one-day trial in South Dakota Newspaper Association v Barnett, 3:19cv-3010. This is the case over the South Dakota ban on out-of-state individuals contribution for or against an initiative campaign. This case is combined with a similar case called South Dakota Voice v Noem, same case number. Here is a newspaper story describing the trial.
According to this post at FrontloadingHQ, the Puerto Rico Democratic Party will ask the Puerto Rico legislature to move the presidential primary date from the first Sunday in June, to the second Sunday in March.
On April 30, North Carolina held a primary for the special election, U.S. House, 3rd district. The seat is vacant because Congressman Walter B. Jones died. There were primaries for all three North Carolina parties that nominate by primary: Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian.
Here are the results. The Republicans must have a runoff primary on July 9 because no one got the required 30%. Because the Republicans must have a runoff, the special general election won’t occur until September 10. If someone had got 30% in the Republican primary, then the special general election would have been July 9.
Nicholas Stephanopoulos of Election Law Blog here analyzes the May 3 Ohio decision, striking down the U.S. House district boundaries as a partisan gerrymander. For those who are interested in this topic but who don’t want to read the very long opinion, Stephanopoulos provides a clear and interesting summary which covers the Ohio decision and also the other recent lower court decisions on partisan gerrymanders.
On April 30, Alabama State Senator Cam Ward (R-Alabaster) introduced SB 336. It decreases the number of signatures for newly-qualifying parties, and non-presidential independents, from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 1.5%. Also it eases the petition deadline from the day of the primary, to the third Wednesday after the run-off primary. The bill affects federal and state office, but not county office.
If the bill were to pass, the 2020 statewide petition would go from 51,588 signatures to 25,794 signatures. The deadline would move from March 3 to April 29. The bill has a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 8. Thanks to Joshua Cassity for this news.
