Late last year, Professor Michael Kang, who is both a political scientist and a law professor, wrote “Gerrymandering and the Constitutional Norm Against Government Partisanship.” The paper argues that no election law that is based on a desire to help one particular political party can be constitutional. That paper has just won the prize for the year’s best election law paper. The award was made by the Association of American Law Schools, Election Law Section.

The paper is 71 pages long and can be read here. Professsor Kang has been writing for some years in favor of equal and tolerant ballot access, and he is also a foe of “sore loser” laws. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

On November 25, the Board of Californians for Electoral Reform endorsed Thomas Palzer’s initiative to repeal the California top-two system, and to return to the old semi-closed primary.

New Jersey does not permit out-of-state circulators for primary petitions. The Third Circuit will hear a challenge to that law on January 23, 2018, Wilmuth v Guadagno, 17-1925. The plaintiff filed the case in 2016, wanting to circulate primary petitions for a Democratic presidential candidate. The state argued that if someone from outside New Jersey were allowed to do that, that would violate the associational rights of the Democratic Party. However, the Democratic Party has no bylaw on that subject, and did not intervene in the case. Nevertheless, the U.S. District Court ruled against Wilmuth, without even writing an opinion, back on March 24, 2017. Wilmuth is appealing to the Third Circuit.