On August 18, some of the plaintiffs in an ongoing Texas lawsuit over redistricting asked the judges to set aside time for a hearing in early September over the new expected U.S. House districts. Here is the filing in League of United Latin American Citizens v Abbott, w.d., 3:21cv-259.

The bill for new U.S. House districts has passed the House and the Senate Elections Committee, but not the full Senate. When the Senate takes up the bill on Friday, August 22, in the late afternoon, Senator Carol Alvarado, a Democrat, plans to conduct a filibuster.

The original case was filed in 2021 and challenges the old U.S. House district lines as well as the legislative district lines.

The California legislature passed three bills on August 21, a package to ask voters if they wish to approve new U.S. House districts. Governor Gavin Newsom then signed the two bills that needed his signature.

The Texas legislature will almost certainly pass redistricting bills for U.S. House in the evening of August 21.

LOUISIANA MAKES IT MORE DIFFICULT TO CREATE A BALLOT-QUALIFIED PARTY

On June 4, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed HB 420.  It increases the requirement for a group to become a qualified party, for purposes of presidential, state and local elections.  The old law required 1,000 registered members.  The new law requires 5,000 registered members.  The bill’s author, Representative Beth Billings, is a former state chair of the Republican Party.

Fortunately, the bill does not change the requirements for an already-qualified party to remain on the ballot.  For purposes of presidential, state and local offices, the law continues to let them remain on the ballot if they run at least one candidate every four years.

There are no news stories mentioning the increase in the difficulty of qualifying a new party.  There appears to be no election-administration reason for increasing the requirement.  Currently, the only ballot-qualified parties in Louisiana are the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, and Green Parties.  The old law, requiring 1,000 members, was passed in 2004, and in the twenty years it existed, there have never been more than five qualified parties.

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