Election Data Services has used recent census data to predict which states will gain and which states will lose electoral votes after the 2020 census. See this Daily Kos map and article. Thanks to Political Wire for the link. The map shows the number of projected future U.S. House seats. To know the future electoral vote of each state, add “2” to the number shown on the map.
This Macleans article says that the chances are fairly good that the voters of British Columbia will vote in favor of using proportional representation for provincial elections, when the issue is on the ballot in 2019.
Orange County voters, several year ago, voted to make certain county executive positions non-partisan. However, then the Florida State Court of Appeals ruled that counties do not have the authority to make a decision like that. According to this story, Orange County officials will ask the Florida Supreme Court to reverse that decision.
Three federal lawsuits are still pending on the question of whether presidential electors are free to vote for any person who meets the constitutional qualifications, or whether states can dictate whom they must vote for. The Minnesota case is now pending in the Eighth Circuit, and the oral argument will probably be in February 2018. Abdurrahman v Dayton, 16-4551. The plaintiff, a Democratic presidential elector, was expelled from the state’s meeting of presidential electors in December 2016. He lost in U.S. District Court; that court refused to allow a trial or the presentation of any evidence. The real issue now, in the Eighth Circuit, is whether the U.S. District Court should have permitted evidence.
A U.S. District Court will hear North Carolina Democratic Party v Berger on Wednesday, January 24, at 9:30 a.m. in Greensboro. This is the case over whether North Carolina is violating the constitutional rights of the Democratic Party by having abolished judicial primaries for 2018, even though party labels for judicial candidates appear on the ballot. It is conceivable that by January 24, the legislature (which convenes January 10) will have changed the law.
