On October 1, the U.S. Supreme Court denied mandamus in Citizens for Fair Representation v Padilla, 18-123. This is the case in which some California local governments, minor parties, and voters challenge California legislative districts for having such huge populations that, effectively, ordinary people can’t influence their state legislators. The plaintiffs had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that the U.S. District Court should appoint a three-judge court. The U.S. District Court Judge had first said she would appoint a three-judge court, but then she changed her mind, allegedly because the chief judge of the Ninth Circuit told her not to arrange for a 3-judge court. The plaintiffs had then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, arguing that it isn’t proper for the U.S. District Court to defer to any other court or judge, because the U.S. District Court Judge is the only one who will be familiar with the case. But the U.S. Supreme Court declined to get involved.

The case can proceed without a 3-judge court, of course. California legislative districts have almost 1,000,000 residents for each State Senate district, and 500,000 for each Assembly district.

Currently, Cynthia Nixon is the Working Families Party nominee for Governor of New York. But the party will make a final decision on whether to keep her, or to replace her with Andrew Cuomo, on Wednesday, October 3. See this story.

On September 18, attorneys for the state of Georgia asked the Eleventh Circuit to dismiss the lawsuit Curling v Kemp, which was filed in U.S. District Court in 2017. The case concerns the legality of the state’s vote-counting machines, which do not leave a paper trail. The U.S. District Court had ruled on September 17, 2018, that the case is a valid case and discovery may continue. However, the U.S. District Court Judge had also said Georgia need not replace its machines in time for the November 2018 election, but she strongly hinted that they can’t be used beyond 2018.

In the Eleventh Circuit, the case is 18-13951. The state is also asking the U.S. District Court to stay any further proceedings, while the state tries to persuade the Eleventh Circuit to dismiss the case. The plaintiffs have responded by saying the request for a stay has no merit, and that they want oral argument on the motion for a stay.

It is odd that the state is fighting this case so hard, given that the Secretary of State says he wants to replace the machines in 2019 anyway.