The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has this detailed and interesting story about the December 12 U.S. District Court trial in Moore v Martin. This is the case over the March 1 petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates.
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On December 13, the Third Circuit issued an 18-page opinion in Constitution Party of Pennsylvania v Cortes, 16-3266. The decision says that last year’s decision by the U.S. District Court, rewriting the Pennsylvania ballot access laws for minor party and independent candidates, was faulty. The U.S. District Court should not have imposed a county distribution requirement without finding that such a distribution requirement would have no appreciable impact on voting rights.
The Third Circuit sent the case back to the U.S. District Court to give the state and the District Court a chance to show that a county distribution requirement would do no harm to the petitioning candidates. But the Third Circuit also pointed out that county distribution requirements have been struck down by eleven different courts around the nation (including the U.S. Supreme Court, twice); and they have been upheld only by Pennsylvania state courts (relating to primary petitions circulated by Democrats and Republicans), plus one U.S. District Court in Utah in 1972.
Because this issue still isn’t settled, it seems somewhat likely that the Pennsylvania legislature will finally act to revise the state’s ballot access laws. Eleven different Pennsylvania ballot access laws relating to minor party and independent candidates have now been found unconstitutional (either by a court, or by an executive state officer) without the legislature having acted to revise them.
The Alabama Secretary of State webpage has election returns for the special U.S. Senate election. See here. By a very slight margin, the number of write-ins is greater than the margin between the two candidates named on the ballot. According to the Alabama Secretary of State’s earlier ruling, this means all write-ins will be tallied not only by the counties, but by the state. This will be the first time in history that the Alabama Secretary of State will have tallied up the number of write-ins in a statewide race, for all write-in votes. Alabama does not have a write-in filing procedure, so all write-ins are equally valid and all will be tallied.
However, Doug Jones is exceedingly close to having 50% of the total vote cast, and if he reaches that margin in the final count, then there won’t be a state write-in tally (however, the counties will have the information).
On December 12, a U.S. District Court held a trial in Moore v Martin, the case over the March petition deadline for independent candidates who are running for anything except president (the Arkansas independent presidential petition is in August). The trial went well for the plaintiff, who wants to be an independent candidate in 2018. A decision is expected in the next few weeks.
America Votes 32, which has election returns by county for the 2016 election, is now published. Libraries that always purchase the book have started receiving their copies. Unfortunately the book costs $250. A new volume is published every two years.
The Federal Election Commission still hasn’t published its book of 2016 election returns. It is expected to be out in January 2018. It includes all federal office, primaries and general elections alike, and will be titled “Federal Elections 2016.” It will be free.