California is appealing the decision of a Superior Court that struck down California’s law on matching signatures on voter registration forma and mailed absentee ballots. The decision said that when election officials reject a mailed absentee ballot because the signature doesn’t appear to match that voter’s signatures on voter registration forms, the voter must be informed and given a chance to show that he or she did cast that absentee ballot.

The state also wants the decision stayed, while it appeals. See this story, which reveals that Florida, Illinois, and New Hampshire laws are similar to California’s. Thanks to Politico for the link.

As previously reported, the Maine Republican Party has filed a federal lawsuit, alleging that the First Amendment’s Freedom of Association clause permits the party to decide for itself whether it wants to use ranked choice voting in its primaries. The Maine Republican Party also argues that the supporters of ranked choice voting should not be allowed to intervene in the lawsuit.

Here is the 8-page brief of the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting, defending its right to intervene in the case. The judge will decide in a few days whether to approve intervention. Thanks to Tony Roza for this news.

On August 30, 2016, Florida held its congressional-state office primaries. One of the closer contests was the race between incumbent Democratic congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and professor Tim Canova in the 23rd district, which is mostly in Broward County. The results were: Wasserman Schultz 28,809; Canova 21,907.

Canova suspected that the results were inaccurate. On October 19, 2017, he filed a public records request to see the ballots. Federal law says election officials must retain ballots until 22 months after any federal primary or election. But after Canova filed his lawsuit, Broward County election officials disposed of all the 2016 primary ballots. Canova sued. On May 11, 2018, the state trial court ruled that the destruction of the ballots was unlawful, as was the failure of the county to produce the ballots so that Canova could inspect them. Here is the 9-page opinion in Canova v Snipes, Broward Co. Circuit Court, CACE17-010904.

Ironically, earlier this year, Canova withdrew from the Democratic primary for the same seat this year, and switched to being an independent candidate. Part of his motivation was despair that he could get a fair vote-counting process in this year’s Democratic primary. If he had won the case earlier, he might have remained in the 2018 primary. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.