On October 9, a Missouri state trial court enjoined the new law that requires voters to show a photo ID at the polls. Priorities USA v State of Missouri, 18AC-cc226, Circuit Court of Cole County. Even though the photo ID law is a new part of the State Constitution, the basis for the opinion is the State Constitution’s older voting rights language. Here is the six-page opinion. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On October 9, the New York State Board of Elections posted this final list of candidates who will be on the November 2018 ballot, for state office. There had been prior lists, but they have been constantly revised as various parties change their nominees. This new list is the first one to show that Andrew Cuomo is the Working Families nominee.
If one scrolls to the very end, one sees a page showing the logo of each party that is on the ballot. They range from ancient (the Democratic and Republican Party logos haven’t been changed since the 19th century) to the new. Women’s Equality’s party logo is a right-pointing triangle, identical to the symbol one sees if one wishes to start watching a you tube.
Massachusetts Secretary of State never releases a tally of how many registered voters there are in each party, except just prior to a statewide partisan primary, or a statewide general election. The first tally since 2016 is now out. It is as of August 15, 2018. Democratic 33.22%; Republican 10.37%; Libertarian .32%; Green .11%; members of other unqualified parties .91%; independent and miscellaneous 55.08%.
The percentages just before the 2016 general election were: Democratic 34.18%; Republican 10.68%; Libertarian .20%; Green .14%.
The Secretary of State has put the data for the three qualified parties (Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian) on his web page. However his web page does not show the totals for the unqualified parties, even though the data exists.
The number of registered voters in smaller unqualified parties currently is: Socialist 808; Constitution 244; Reform 119; Prohibition 18; Working Families 12. Most of the registrants in the unqualified parties are in the United Independent Party, which is defunct but which was on the ballot 2014-2016.
Lou Jacobson’s Governing blog here displays the partisan lineup in each state legislative chamber, and also predicts which chambers will switch from having a majority of one party, to a majority of the other party. There is a surprisingly small number of chambers likely to switch, and only one state in which he expects both chambers to switch. He think it is likely that both New Hampshire chambers will switch from Republican majorities to Democratic majorities.
Once again, the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a case involving voting rights for individuals who live in a U.S. territorial possession. The court refused to hear Segovia v United States, 17-1463.
