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.

On January 8, Wyoming State Senator Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie) introduced SF 65. It would use ranked choice voting in primaries and general elections. It appears it would also provide that the top four candidates for any particular office (as chosen in the August primary) should appear on the November election, and voters in November would use ranked choice-voting. Here is the bill. It has four co-sponsors. It is not clear whether the bill would affect presidential elections.

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia introduced HR 51 on January 3. Already it has 155 co-sponsors. See it here. Thanks to Mike Drucker for this news. There have been similar bills in many past sessions of Congress, but none of them has ever had that many co-sponsors, and it is very early in the session, so it will probably gain additional co-sponsors in the coming weeks.