The new law concerning the composition of the North Carolina State Board of Elections says the board must have four Republicans, four Democrats, and a member who is neither. The process for choosing the ninth member is: the original eight members choose two individuals, and then the Governor picks one of them. On March 21, the Board settled on two independents, and the same day, the Governor chose one. See this story. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On March 21, South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard signed HB 1012. It change the test for a party to remain on the ballot. The old law said a party had to poll 2.5% for any statewide office, in every election (in other words, every two years). The new law says the vote test only must be met every four years.
The Intercept, an award-winning national news source established in 2014, has this story by David Dayen about California’s U.S. House races. Dayen describes the many high-qualify Democratic candidates who dropped out, because they didn’t want to help cause a situation in which no Democrat would qualify for the November ballot.
According to this New York Times story, the Illinois Republican Party will attempt to recruit someone to run as an independent candidate this year in the U.S. House, 3rd district, race. The reason is that Neo-Nazi Arthur Jones on March 20 won the Republican primary for that seat. No one ran against him in that primary.
Last year, some California individuals, elected local officials, and organizations, filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that because the California legislative districts are so populous, ordinary people effectively have no ability to influence their own state legislators. The State Senate districts have approximately 1,000,000 population; Assembly district 500,000.
On March 20, the plaintiffs filed this amended Complaint. The U.S. District Court Judge who has this case, which is called Citizens for Fair Representation v Padilla, e.d., 2:17cv-973, found fault with the first complaint but let the plaintiffs file an amended complaint.
