On January 26, the Venezuela Supreme Court ruled that two or more parties will no longer be allowed to jointly nominate the same candidate. The decision is seen as a blow to the opposition parties. See this story.
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On January 23, the Washington state House Committee on State Government, Elections and Information Technology passed HB 1469. It moves the presidential primary from May to March. Now the bill goes to the House Rules Committee. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.
New Mexico elects a statewide partisan office called Land Commissioner, in midterm years. The incumbent Republican Land Commissioner, Aubrey Dunn, has just announced that he has switched his registration from Republican to Libertarian. See this story. Thanks to Rick Lass for the link.
This is the first time any statewide elected official in a partisan office has ever been registered in the Libertarian Party.
The daily newspaper of Little Rock, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has this article about the recent ruling striking down the March petition deadline for independent candidate petitions in Arkansas.
On January 26, Pennsylvania asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, involving U.S. House district boundaries. On January 22 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had invalidated the state’s U.S. House district boundaries for violating the Pennsylvania Constitution. The Pennsylvania State Supreme Court also ordered new districts in time for the 2018 election. The state wants the U.S. Supreme Court to stay that. Here is the state’s filing with the U.S. Supreme Court, Turzai v League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, 17A795.