On January 12, attorneys for North Carolina government filed a brief in support of the law that abolished judicial primaries for the 2018 election. The Democratic Party had filed a lawsuit late last year, arguing that abolishing judicial primaries violates the U.S. Constitution. The case is North Carolina Democratic Party v Berger, m.d., 1:17cv-1113.
In November 2017, voters in Winterville, North Carolina chose city elected officials. The vote was close and the outcome was disputed. Normally the State Board of Elections would have made a final ruling, but because the State Board temporarily is deemed not to exist, the dispute had to be settled by a state court. See this story.
In 2012, the South Carolina Constitution was amended to provide that candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor should run together as a team. The change is supposed to start in 2018. However, the election law still hasn’t been amended to set forth the mechanics. This story says the bill to specify the details is bogged down because of a dispute over an unrelated part of the bill raising salaries for some elected officials.
On January 10, the Alabama House Constitution, Campaigns and Elections Committee passed HB 17. It provides that when there is a vacancy in a U.S. Senate seat, there would be no special election until November of the next even year. If this bill had been in effect last year, Alabama would not have held a special election to fill the vacancy created when Jeff Sessions resigned until November 2018. Instead, gubernatorial appointee Luther Strange would have filled the seat during 2018.
Six New Hampshire legislators have introduced HB 1540, which provides that ranked choice voting would be used for all federal and state offices, both in the primaries and in the general election.
The bill has a hearing in the House Election Law Committee on January 23, Tuesday. Thanks to Michael Drucker for this news.
