On May 22, the Pennsylvania Senate State Government Committee unanimously passed SB 22. It sets up a redistricting commission that would draw districts both for the legislature and U.S. House. The commission would have eleven members. The Governor would choose three members who could not be either Democrats or Republicans. The other eight would be chosen by legislative leaders. The bill is a state constitutional amendment, so if it passes the legislature, then the voters would vote on the idea.

On May 22, U.S. District Court Judge Kimberly Mueller issued an order in Citizens for Fair Representation v Padilla, e.d., 2:17cv-973. She cancelled the oral argument of June 1, and said she will soon issue a decision on whether this case will be referred to a 3-judge U.S. District Court, without benefit of oral argument on that.

This is the lawsuit that says the population of California legislative districts (approximately 1,000,000 per State Senate district, and 500,000 for Assembly districts) is so large, California voters no longer have meaningful opportunities to communicate with their state legislators, and that this situation violates the U.S. Constitution.

This NPR story says the traditional exit poll will probably no longer be carried out in the United States. Instead there will be more pre-election polling just days before the election, to capture information about the millions of persons who vote early, and also to account for the fact that more conservative voters are less willing to cooperate with exit pollsters.