The Washington State Supreme Court will hear Guerra v Washington State, 95347-3, on Tuesday, January 22, 2019, at 9 a.m. This is the case brought by some Democratic presidential electors in 2016. They were fined because they did not vote for Hillary Clinton.
On November 15, U.S District Court Judge Lance E. Walker refused to enjoin the ongoing count of Maine ranked-choice ballots. Baber v Dunlap, 1:18cv-465. This is the case brought by the incumbent Republican congressman in the Second District, Bruce Poliquin. Judge Walker is a Trump appointee. Here is the 16-page order.
Florida Politics has this interesting article about the Reform Party nominee for Governor of Florida, Darcy Richardson. One of the points mentioned in the story is that most Florida counties abbreviate the names of political parties, instead of including the whole party name. The Reform Party in most counties was “Ref.”, which might look like “Rep.” to voters that are either careless or have poor eyesight. Thanks to Peter Gemma for the link.
The Florida U.S. Senate race had no candidates on the ballot other than the Republican and Democratic nominees. But the Florida Governor’s race had the Reform Party nominee and three independent candidates.
A U.S. District Court in Montana will hear Montana Green Party v Stapleton, 6:18cv-87, on January 8, Tuesday. This is the ballot access case that challenges the March 15 petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties, and the unequal distribution requirement for the petition. The law requires signatures in each of 34 state house districts, which are all presumed to have equal populations. The law violates “one person, one vote” because in some districts as many as 150 signatures are required, yet in others, as few as 55 signatures. Thus voters in the latter counties have more power than voters in the former type of districts. No other state has ever had such a peculiar distribution requirement for any type of statewide petition.
According to this story, the Ohio Secretary of State has informally said that the Ohio Libertarian Party is no longer qualified. The story quotes a spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office, who admits the party does have one sentence of the law on its side. But he says other parts of the law are in conflict. The office has not made a formal declaration yet. Thanks to Jim Riley for the link.
