On October 24, a Pennsylvania state trial court kept a Democratic nominee for State Senate, 38th district, on the ballot. Republicans had challenged her on the basis that they didn’t believe she had been a resident for four years. The court said the Republican challenge was filed too late, and should have been filed when the candidate filed for the primary in March. See this story. Thanks to Steve Goodale for the link.
On October 19, the Eleventh Circuit ruled that Georgia’s annotated legal codes are not subject to being copyrighted. Therefore, groups are free to post copies of them on-line. In this case, Public Resources.org had posted the annotated code, but the state then sued to stop Public Resources from doing that. Here is the decision. Thanks to How Appealing for this news.
On October 24, U.S. District Court Judge Leigh Martin May said she will issue an injunction on October 25 in the two absentee ballot cases, Martin v Kemp, 1:18cv-4776, and Georgia Muslin Voter Project v Kemp, 1:18cv-4789. She hasn’t issued the injunctions yet because she wants to give the state a chance to comment on the details. UPDATE: on October 25, the final 4-page order was released; see it here.
One case involves the process by which election officials compare the signature on a voter registration application against a voter’s signature on a request for an absentee ballot. The other case involves checking the signature on a voter registration application against the mailed ballot, when it arrives to be counted. The injunction will protect voters whose applications or ballots have been rejected. If either is rejected, the voter must be informed promptly, so the problem can be cured. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news. Here is the 31-page order handed down on October 24.
On October 24, the New York State Court of Appeals refused to hear the case over whether the Democratic Party nominees for Justice of the Supreme Court should be on the ballot. Thus, the lower court decision stands, and the nominees are not on the ballot in the 13th district, which comprises Staten island. See this story. Thanks to Frank Morano for the link.
On October 24, an NBC News/Marist Poll was released for the Governor gubernatorial race. The results: Republican Brian Kemp 46%, Democrat Stacey Abrams 45% Libertarian Ted Metz 4%, undecided 5%. See this story.
Georgia has general election runoffs if no one gets 50%. This year, any runoff would be on December 4. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
