West Virginia is the only state which hasn’t released its official election returns from the November 2018 election. They will be released next week, after Marion County finishes.
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On January 9, the Fourth Circuit issued a 24-page in Sixth Congressional District Republican Committee v Alcorn, 18-1111. The opinion strikes down the Virginia election law that lets incumbents who are running for re-election dictate to their own party, how that party nominates in that particular race. Generally parties in Virginia are free to choose primary or convention, but the law at issue curtailed the party of the power to choose, when the incumbent running for re-election didn’t agree with the party’s wishes. The decision is by Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, a Reagan appointee. It is also signed by Judge Diana Gribbon Motz, a Clinton appointee; and Judge Allyson K. Duncan, a Bush Jr. appointee.
The opinion says, “The weight of this burden (on political parties) could not be more obvious. The members of the 6th Congressional District Committee have, as generations of Americans did before them, banded together to advance their political views…At the ‘crucial juncture’ at which the members of this political association decide how to select their nominee, the Commonwealth has taken the decision out of their hands. No matter what method of nomination the members of this party may prefer, Virginia law decrees that they must give way to the desire of the incumbent to hold a primary if that incumbent was himself selected by primary previously and is seeking reelection.”
On January 3, two Christian groups filed an amicus curiae in Utah Republican Party v Cox, 18-450. They are the U.S. Pastor Council and the Christian Life Center, a Utah church. They argue in favor of the Utah Republican Party, which is hoping the Court will accept their case. The issue is the extent to which state governments can tell parties how to choose nominees. Here is the amicus.
On January 8, U.S. District Court Magistrate John Johnston denied the motion of the Montana Secretary of State to dismiss the lawsuit Montana Green Party v Stapleton, 6:18cv-87. The lawsuit was filed last year and challenges the unequal distribution requirement for the petition to create a new ballot-qualified party. The lawsuit also challenges the March 15 petition deadline for that petition. The state tried to get the case dismissed for various legal technical issues, rather than on the substance of the issues, but the case remains alive and a trial will be held.
Three Democratic legislators in Colorado have introduced SB 19-42, to have Colorado join the National Popular Vote Plan. They are Senator Mike Foote, and Representatives Emily Sirota and Jeni Arendt.