On December 27, the North Carolina Democratic Party asked a U.S. District Court Judge not to grant more time for the defendants to respond in North Carolina Democratic Party v Berger, m.d., 1:17cv-1113. This is the lawsuit on whether the state violated the U.S. Constitution earlier this year when it abolished primaries for judicial offices in the 2018 election.

However, later on December 27, the Judge did grant more time for the defendants to respond. The briefs in the case are now due by January 17. It is conceivable that by then, the law will have been amended anyway. The legislature convenes on January 10 and because the Defendants are the leaders of each house of the legislature, they probably have the power to change the law quickly.

Although news reports have said the Alabama Secretary of State would tally up the write-in votes cast for U.S. Senate on December 12, 2017, now the office says it will not do that. Instead it will let visitors to the Secretary of State’s web page look at the tally each county provided. But there won’t be official statewide totals for any write-in candidate. Anyone who wants to know how many write-ins any particular candidate received will be obliged to add up the figures provided by each county. Hence any total that anyone compiles won’t be “official.”

Furthermore, some of the county reports are in handwriting, and some of these reports are difficult to read.

The official totals for Doug Jones and Roy Moore will be released on Thursday, December 28.

Daily Kos has this useful page that shows the date of each state’s 2018 primary, and also the date on which primary candidates must file. The chart does not have any information for deadlines for independent candidates or for new parties, or parties that nominate entirely by convention. Thanks to Adam Bonin for the link.