On January 24, the Florida House unanimously passed CS/HM 147, expressing support for statehood for Puerto Rico. It now goes to the State Senate. The resolution doesn’t use the word “statehood” but it seems capable of no other interpretation.
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The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Benisek v Lamone, 17-333, on March 28. This is another partisan gerrymandering case, from Maryland. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.
Philadelphia held a special election last year to fill the vacancy in the 197th State House seat. Although this is normally a Democratic stronghold, in this election, the only candidate who was on the ballot was the Republican nominee. The Democratic Party backed a write-in candidate; also a very strong Green candidate, Cheri Honkkala, was a write-in candidate.
Criminal charges have been lodged against some of the officials who served at the polls as election officials. See this story about some of the evidence.
The Limestone County (Alabama) Republican Party has told Jason White that they will not let him run in the Republican primary for county sheriff, for several reasons. The party did not explicitly list its reasons, but White believes there are several: (1) he is gay; (2) he was asked who he voted for in the November 2016 presidential election, and he answered that he voted for Gary Johnson.
White now intends to run as an independent candidate. See this story.
State courts in Alabama have long upheld the right of political parties the ability to deny candidates access to primary ballots based on political considerations.
The South Dakota Secretary of State plans to ask the legislature to make further improvements to ballot access laws for new and minor parties. A new bill is likely to be introduced on January 31. The bill may let newly-qualifying parties, and perhaps all small qualified parties, nominate by convention for all office. It also may lower the number of signatures needed for a petition to get a party on the ballot.