On January 17, the West Virginia House Judiciary Committee passed HB 4002. Currently West Virginia’s lower house has many districts that elect several Delegates. The bill would end multi-member districts, and provide for 100 single-member House districts. It would take effect after the 2020 census.

Currently there are eleven House districts with 2 members, six with three members, two with four members, and one with five members. There are also 47 that only have one member.

In committee, the vote was 12-6, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed.

On January 16, Wisconsin held a special election to fill the vacancy in the State Senate, 10th district, in the northwest part of the state. The State Elections office does not have any returns, but newspapers report these percentages: Democrat Patty Schachtner 55%; Republican Adam Jarchow 44%; Libertarian Brian Corriea 1%.

When this seat was last up, in November 2016, the results were: Republican 63.2%; Democratic 36.8%.

On January 17, the North Carolina Democratic Party filed this final brief in North Carolina Democratic Party v Berger, m.d., 1:17cv-1113. The issue is whether the state violated the U.S. Constitution when it abolished judicial primaries for 2018 only. North Carolina judicial elections are partisan, and party labels appear on the ballot. But with no primaries, there is no state-sanctioned method for any party to choose its nominees.