A few news stories describe the hearing in the Washington State Supreme Court yesterday on whether presidential electors have freedom to vote for any qualified person, but the stories say nothing about how the justices reacted to the arguments. Here is one story.
The Democratic Party’s lawsuit against the Florida law that always puts the party that won the last gubernatorial election first on the ballot is moving along. The experts who will testify that being listed first on the ballot gives candidates an advantage will present their reports on January 29. The state’s experts, who will presumably present evidence that ballot position doesn’t matter, will submit their reports on February 13. The trial will be June 3. The case is now called Jacobson v Ertel. It was formerly Jacobson v Detzner but Florida has a new Secretary of State.
The Washington State Supreme Court will hear In the matter of Guerra, 95347-3, at 9 a.m., Tuesday, January 22. Here is an article about the case, which challenges the Washington state law that fines presidential electors who vote for someone in the electoral college who did not get the most popular votes in the state.
On January 22, the Maryland Libertarian Party asked a U.S. District Court to prevent the state from printing up new registration cards that omit the Libertarian Party as a choice, at least until the main issue in the party’s lawsuit is settled. Johnston v Lamone, 1:18cv-3988. The party went off the ballot in November 2018 because it didn’t poll 1% for Governor. However, the party has over 20,000 registered members. The lawsuit argues that the ballot retention law, as applied to a party in its position, is unconstitutional. The state says the party needs a petition of 10,000 signatures in order to get back on the ballot, but the party argues that it is not rational for the state to require the party to submit 10,000 signatures, when it is obvious that there are more than 10,000 voters in Maryland who want the party on the ballot. Clearly if a party has over 20,000 registered members, any petition to show that 10,000 voters want the party on the ballot is redundant.
HR 51, the bill in Congress to make the District of Columbia a state, now has 182 co-sponsors. It has gained 27 co-sponsors in the past two weeks. It is by D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton.
