On August 31, the plaintiffs who sued North Carolina over the U.S. House redistricting plan asked the court not to change the old unconstitutional districts until after the 2018 election is over. See their document here in Common Cause v Rucho. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link. The plaintiffs also ask the court to appoint a special master to draw new districts for 2020.
The Los Alamos Monitor has this lengthy story about the New Mexico straight-ticket device controversy. Toward the end of the article, the story quotes New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver as saying she researched the matter, and learned that the Michigan Supreme Court ordered the Michigan Secretary of State to put the device on the ballot. This is not true. A single U.S. District Court judge made that decision in Michigan, and the state is appealing.
California is the only state that prints the occupation of each candidate on the ballot for all partisan office except President. On August 30, Congressman Jeff Denham won a lawsuit that argued his label of “farmer” is not true and should not be on the ballot next to his name. But the basis for his court victory was that the people who brought the lawsuit were not able to hand-deliver notification to him that he was being sued. The people who brought the lawsuit say he deliberately evaded the process server, both in Washington, D.C., and in his home district. See this story.
The Colorado legislature has placed two ballot measures for nonpartisan redistricting commissions on the November ballot. One is for U.S. House districts, and one is for legislative districts. They require membership of four Democrats, four Republicans, and four individuals who are not members of any party. Thus the only members of the public who could not possibly serve on the commissions are members of parties other than the Democratic and Republican Parties. See this Reason.com blog post. Thanks to Walter Ziobro for the link.
On August 30, U.S. District Court Victoria Roberts refused to stay her own opinion in Graveline v Johnson, 2:18cv-12354. On August 27, the judge had put independent candidate Chris Graveline on the ballot for Attorney General as an independent, provided he has at least 5,000 valid signatures on his petition. He submitted over 14,000, so it is likely he does have at least 5,000 valid.
The state wanted a stay because it said it will have difficulty checking the petition. The state has also filed a notice to the Sixth Circuit, to reverse the U.S. District Court. In the Sixth Circuit, the case is number 18-1992.
