Patricia Muth died on April 28, 2018, at the age of 77. She was a leader of the Reform Party, especially in Florida. She also wrote a history of the Reform Party, called “A Title in the Making.”
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On October 11, various groups representing voters, especially minority group voters, sued Georgia over its slow processing of voter registration applications. Georgia Coalition for the Peoples’ Agenda v Kemp, n.s., 1:18cv-4727. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Eleanor Ross, an Obama appointee. Here is the Complaint. There are approximately 53,000 voter registration applications that have not been processed. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link to the complaint.
Port Chester, New York, has been using cumulative voting for its village trustee elections for some time. On October 10, the voters voted to keep using the system. The vote was 746-429. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news. See this story.
On October 5, the West Virginia Supreme Court issued its explanation of why it kept Don Blankenship, Constitution Party nominee, off the ballot. State ex rel Blankenship v Warner, 18-0712. The opinion is at its weakest near the end, when it tries to explain why keeping “sore losers” off the ballot for unqualified parties doesn’t violate equal protection, because qualified minor parties are free to nominate “sore losers” if they nominate by convention. Thanks to Phil Hudok for the link.
In 2000, the legislature of Guam created a Decolonization Registry, for the purpose of compiling a list of Guam residents who are descended from anyone who was living on Guam in 1898. The purpose of the Registry was to prepare for a plebiscite on the future political status of Guam. The legislature believed that such a vote should be limited to descendants of people who comprised Guam, in the year in which it fell under U.S. rule.
A resident of Guam, Arnold Davis, sued in 2012 in federal court to overturn the restriction on who could register for this plebiscite. He was not descended from anyone who had lived on Guam in 1898. The U.S. District Court in Guam ruled that the case was not ripe, because the law also said that no vote would be held until 70% of the eligible voters had signed up for the registry, and at the time only about 10% of the eligible voters had signed up. In 2015, the Ninth Circuit ruled that Davis had a right to a decision, regardless that the proposed vote was years away, and might never be held.
The Ninth Circuit sent the case back to the U.S. District Court, which ruled that the restriction on who could register violated the U.S. Constitution, specifically the 15th amendment. Guam appealed, and on October 10, 2018, the Ninth Circuit heard the case again, this time on the merits. The case is now Davis v Guam, 17-15719. The three judges who heard the case are Kim McLaine Wardlaw, Marsha Berzon, and Johnnie Rawlinson. Here is an article that explains the background of the Decolonization Registry.