Mexico holds a presidential election on July 1, 2018. Three party nominees and three independent candidates are expected to be listed on the ballot. The three qualified parties are PAN, Morena, and PRI. See this story about the three independent candidates who qualified.
On February 13, the Arizona House Federalism, Property Rights & Public Policy Committee passed HCR 2022. If this bill passes the legislature, it would amend the State Constitution, so would go to a public vote in November 2018. It says that no more primaries are permitted for U.S. Senate. Instead, the only nominees in the November ballot for U.S. Senate would be four individuals chosen by state legislators. The bill does not explain whether write-ins would still be allowed in November for U.S. Senate.
The sponsors are Representative Travis Grantham (R-Gilbert) and Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley). The committee vote was 6-3.
The bill is clearly in violation of Williams v Rhodes, the U.S. Supreme Court decision which said that states cannot limit the general election ballot to just Republican and Democratic nominees. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.
See this post from the Election Law Blog, which says that on February 19, a holiday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court settled the 2018 boundaries of the state’s U.S. House districts. The Election Law Blog also has a small map showing the new districts.
UPDATE: here is the majority decision, which has detailed maps.
A new political party in Great Britain, called the Renew Party, has already recruited candidates for the next Parliamentary election in 450 of the nation’s 650 districts, according to this story. The new party stands for keeping Great Britain in the European Union. Neither of the two major parties in Britain favor that policy.
The Virginia election law gives all parties the ability to decide whether to use a primary or a convention for any particular contest. But the law also says that when a party has an incumbent, then the incumbent, not the party, may make the final decision as to which method to use.
On January 19, 2018, a U.S. District Court struck down the law that lets incumbents dictate the nomination method. The case was filed by two subunits of the Virginia Republican Party and some Republican voters who are also party officers. Here is the 54-page decision in Fitzgerald v Alcorn, w.d., 5:17cv-16. The opinion is by Judge Michael F. Urbanski, an Obama appointee.
On February 5, Judge Urbanski stayed his own opinion, because the nomination for congressional candidates is about to begin in Virginia. Also Judge Urbanski noted this is a case of first impression and that it is conceivable that the Fourth Circuit will disagree with him. Thanks to Mark Rush for this news.
