On August 9, a U.S. District Court in Massachusetts heard Lyman v Baker, 1:18cv-10327. This is one of the four cases around the country that challenges the constitutionality of a state law, requiring that state’s presidential electors to be elected at-large. See this story.
A similar case was argued in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles last month. David Boies argued both times. He is famous for having been Al Gore’s attorney in 2000 in Bush v Gore.
On August 9, North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger submitted 1,300 signatures to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate. He is running for re-election as an independent because he had decided not to seek the Republican nomination. But then the individual who did win the Republican nomination withdrew, so there will be no Republican on the ballot.
The law requires 1,000 signatures. See this story.
Attorney Justin Hanson, an Illinois attorney, has filed to be a write-in candidate for U.S. House in the Illinois Third District. This is the district in which the March Republican primary was won by Arthur Jones, a Holocaust denier. The only other name on the ballot is the Democratic incumbent, Dan Lipinski. Hanson has already raised $20,000. See this story. Hanson is a former Republican congressional staffer.
It appears that Matt Morgan, the only Democrat running for Michigan’s U.S. House seat, First District, has easily polled enough write-ins in the August 7 primary to become the Democratic nominee in November. It is very rare for anyone to receive enough write-ins in a Michigan primary to be deemed nominated. The law requires the number of write-ins to equal 5% of the number of voters who participate in that party’s primary.
No one was on the Democratic primary ballot for U.S. House in the First District, which includes the Upper Peninsula. Morgan expected to be on the ballot but his petition had a flaw, so no one was on the Democratic primary ballot for that seat. So his campaign asked voters to cast a write-in, and it appears he has as many as 30,000, far more than the approximately 5,000 he needed. See this story.
On August 9, the West Virginia Constitution Party and its nominee for U.S. Senate, Don Blankenship, asked the West Virginia Supreme Court to put Blankenship on the November ballot. Blankenship v Warner, 18-0712. This news story includes a link to the brief. Thanks to Jeff Becker for the link. UPDATE: here is the brief.
