On September 6, supporters of Michigan’s straight ticket device asked the U.S. Supreme Court to restore the straight-ticket device. But on September 7, the Court declined to take any action. Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg would have recommended that the Court quickly take up the matter. Michigan State A. Philip Randolph Institute v Johnson, 18A240. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news. Here is a newspaper story.
On September 7, the Michigan Secretary of State added Chris Graveline to her list of candidates who will appear on the general election ballot. He is an independent candidate for Attorney General who failed to collect the legally required 30,000 valid signatures, but who won injunctive relief against that requirement. Here is the candidate list. Attorney General is near the top, following Governor-Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State.
The Utah Debate Commission is a consortium of academic and media organizations. Starting in 2014, it has sponsored debates for statewide office and congress. It has generally excluded any candidates except Republican and Democratic nominees, by requiring a showing of 10% in polls before letting a candidate debate. But it has agreed to include Eric Eliason, the nominee of the United Utah Party, in its U.S. House debate, First District. That debate will be October 17.
On September 7, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker issued a 27-page order in Rivera Madera v Detzner, n.d., 1:18cv-152. The issue is whether 32 particular Florida counties should have provided ballots in both English and Spanish, instead of just English. Because the election is so close, the judge denied the request of the plaintiffs for bilingual ballots. But he ordered that the 32 counties publish Spanish-language ballots on their websites.
His order starts with this paragraph, “Here we are again. The clock hits 6:00 a.m. Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe” starts playing. Denizens of and visitors to Punxsutawaney, Pennsylvania eagerly await the groundhog’s prediction. And the state of Florida is alleged to violate federal law in its handling of elections.” A footnote to that paragraph says, “Phil Connors, portrayed by Bill Murray, experienced a similar phenomenon. Groundhog Day (Columbia Pictures Corp. 1993).”
On September 6, an Arkansas trial court removed Measure One from the ballot. It deals with tort reform and was put on the ballot by the legislature. The judge found the measure violates the single-subject rule. See this story.
