On December 13, U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker, a Trump appointee, issued a 30-page opinion in Baber v Dunlap, 1:18cv-465. The opinion says ranked choice voting does not violate the U.S. Constitution. Thanks to Rob Richie for this news.
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On December 10, the California Secretary of State told the Ninth Circuit that it intends to ask for a rehearing en banc in Soltysik v Padilla, the case over party labels for candidates who are members of unqualified parties. The next day, the Ninth Circuit extended the deadline for the state to ask for a rehearing to January 16. The intervenors, “Californians to Protect the Open Primary” joined in with this request.
The U.S. Supreme Court had asked the Utah government to respond by January 2, in Utah Republican Party v Cox. This is the case over whether the First Amendment freedom of association clause protects a party’s right to decide for itself how it nominates. On December 11, Utah asked the Supreme Court to extend that deadline to February 2.
On December 12, Kansas State Senator Barbara Bollier announced that she had changed her registration from Republican to Democrat. See this story.
All Kansas State Senate elections are in presidential years, so she was not up for re-election this year. The Kansas State Senate now has 10 Democrats and 30 Republicans. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
North Carolina will probably hold a new election for the U.S. House, 9th district, soon. The original election lacks credibility because it appears that 800 absentee ballots were in the hands of a partisan individual who was not legally permitted to have custody of the ballots.
A bill in the legislature had a provision for a new primary election as well, but that part of the bill was deleted on December 12. Therefore, the same three party nominees will again run against each other in the new election. They are Republican Mark Harris, Democrat Dan McCready, and Libertarian Jeff Scott.
Also on December 12, a North Carolina state court extended the life of the State Board of Elections to December 28, on the assumption that the legislature will soon pass a bill re-constituting the Board. The existing Board’s composition was ruled invalid earlier, but the state court wants to give the legislature more time to re-do the board.