On July 22, Illinois Congressmember Michael Bost filed his brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Bost v Illinois State Board of Elections, 24-568. The issue is whether he had standing to challenge the Illinois law that postal ballots should be counted if they arrive within 14 days of the election, assuming they are postmarked by election day. The lower courts had ruled that he does’t have standing to challenge the Illinois law.

His brief makes a forceful statement that candidates always have standing to challenge election laws that affect them. The case will be argued in the fall of 2025.

On July 23, the Fair Representation Act was again introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressmembers Don Beyer of Virginia and Jamie Raskin of Maryland.
See this press release.

The bill would provide for multi-member U.S. House districts in most states, and would be a type of proportional representation. UPDATE: the bill is HR 4632.

Canada is holding a special election on August 18 to fill a vacancy in the House of Commons, in the Battle River-Crowfoot district in Alberta. Canadian ballot access is easy. Candidates for House of Commons need 100 signatures and a filing fee of $1,000. The Longest Ballot Committee, a group that favors proportional representation and/or ranked choice voting, has caused 128 candidates to file for the special election, as a protest against the status quo electoral system.

Here is the list of candidates. The filing deadline is July 28 so the list may grow between now and then.

Fortunately for voters, the list of candidates is in alphabetical order. When California held its special gubernatorial election in 2003, there were 135 candidates and they were not in alphabetical order.

The protest idea may cause the Canadian ballot access law to become more difficult. See this story, which says that Conservative Party leader wants to increase the petition from 100 signatures to 1,000 signatures, and also to provide that a voter may sign for only one candidate.