On January 10, a 3-judge U.S. District Court upheld Pennsylvania’s U.S. House district boundaries. The vote was 2-1. Agre v Wolf, e.d., 1:17cv-4392.
Each judge wrote separately. The two judges who upheld the districts are D. Brooks Smith, a Bush Jr. appointee, and Patty Shwartz, an Obama appointee. The dissent is by Judge Michael Baylson, a Bush Jr. appointee.
Here is each judge’s opinion: Smith; Shwartz; Baylson. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the links.
On January 10, the North Carolina legislature re-convened. Three Democratic State Senators introduced SB 702, which provides for an independent, non-partisan redistricting commission for U.S. House and legislative districting. They are Senators Erica Smith, Ben Clark, and Jeff Jackson.
On January 4, 2018, the Virginia State Board of Elections agreed to settle the lawsuit De La Fuente v Alcorn, e.d., 1:16cv-1201. The Board signed a consent decree, saying it will revise the presidential general election petition so that it no longer asks signers to add the last four digits of their Social Security number. Here is the 5-page consent decree. This is the first ballot access lawsuit filed by De La Fuente that has achieved its purpose. De La Fuente still has constitutional ballot access cases pending in Arizona, California, Pennsylvania, and Washington.
On January 9, congressmember Brendan Boyle (D-Pennsylvania) introduced HR 4742. It requires presidential nominees of political parties to have a health examination from a doctor who is under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Navy. It further requires that the results of the exam would be made public.
The bill does not say what happens if the presidential nominee does not comply. Also the bill seems not to apply to independent presidential candidates. Unlike some bills relating to tax return disclosure, there is no mention of withholding ballot access.
The Federal Election Commission web page now has this handy set of links to all the election returns books the FEC has ever published. The election returns books always have the title “Federal Elections” followed by any particular election year. They include returns for President (if President was up that year) and both houses of congress. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
The print edition of Federal Elections 2016 is still not available, but it will be soon. The books are free. However, most of them are out-of-print.
