On June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Republican National Committee v Mi Familia Vota, 25-1017. The issue is whether the federal law on voter registration permits states to require voter registration applicants to attach documents proving citizenship. The case arose in Arizona. Here is the cert petition. The case only relates to voters who use the state registration form, not the federal form.
on June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion in Watson v Republican National Committee, 24-1260. This is the case in which the Republican National Committee had sued Mississippi over the state law that says postal ballots may be counted as long as they were postmarked on or before election day, but don’t arrive until three days after election day. The RNC argued that the 1872 federal law, telling the states to hold congressional elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, really means that all the ballots must be received by election day.
The majority upheld the Mississippi law. This sentence from the majority opinion summarizes the holding: “The election-day statutes say nothing about ballot receipt, and we cannot add to the words Congress chose.” Justice Amy Comey Barrett wrote the majority opinion. The dissent is written by Justice Sam Alito, and signed by Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanagh, and Neil Gorsuch.
On June 24, the Iowa Libertarian nominees for Governor and Lieutenant Governor filed a ballot access case in state court. See this news release. The case is Gluba v State Objections Panel, cv071310, Polk County District Court.
On June 22, Randy Flowers, an independent candidate for the Illinois 17th U.S. House district, filed this brief in his ballot access case. Flowers v Illinois State Board of Elections, 4:26cv-4062. Flowers is challenging the 5% petition requirement.
This news story describes the New Mexico Forward Party’s attempts to nominate candidates this year.
