The Eleventh Circuit will hear Wilding v Democratic National Committee the week of September 24. This is the case in which persons who supported Bernie Sanders, and who contributed money to the Democratic Party, are suing the party for not following its own rules of neutrality in the 2016 race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
On June 22, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper signed SB 655, which moves the primary for all office from May, to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March. In 2020, the primary will be on March 3.
Because the independent candidate petition deadline is 15 days before the primary, this moves that deadline from April to February 16. The old deadline was already too early to be constitutional, and the new deadline is even worse. A lawsuit was already pending against the April deadline, and now the Complaint will need to be amended to challenge the February deadline.
In 1980 a U.S. District Court struck down North Carolina’s old April deadline, in Greaves v North Carolina State Board of Elections. The legislature then moved the deadline to June. But years later, it forgot why it had done that, and moved it to April.
On June 19, the Rhode Island Senate passed SB 2612. It says that presidential primary candidates, and presidential candidates in the general election, must file their federal income tax returns with the state elections office. The vote was 34-3. But, leaders of the House say the bill will not be brought up this year in the House, so it won’t pass.
The case against the worst ballot access law in the nation, the Georgia law concerning independent and minor party candidates for U.S. House, is proceeding in U.S. District Court. The case is Cowen v Kemp, n.d., 1:17cv-4660. A great deal of discovery is underway, so the case is taking longer than some other types of cases. All the briefs will be submitted by October 8, 2018, so no matter the outcome, there will be no decision in time for the 2018 election.
Both houses of the California legislature have passed bills making it illegal for anyone to pay petitioners on a per-signature basis. The Assembly passed AB 1947 on April 30, and the Senate passed SB 1394 on May 31. The two bills are similar, but not identical.
