On August 23, Cooperative Congressional Election Survey released a study of general election voters in 2016 who had supported Bernie Sanders during primary season. See this story. It shows that 12% of them voted for Donald Trump, and 8% voted for someone other than either major party presidential nominee.
On August 22, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued this opinion, explaining why it kept Cheri Honkala, the Green Party nominee, off the ballot in the special legislative election held March 21, 2017. Green Party of Pennsylvania v Department of State, 11 MAP 2017.
Four justices signed the majority opinion. Justice Debra Todd didn’t sign the majority opinion, but she concurred in the result. Two justices dissented. Here is the dissent. Both dissenters are Democrats.
Cheri Honkala had filed her nomination certificate one day late, but received misinformation, and sued, arguing estoppel.
In 2016, a South Dakota initiative to set up a top-two system, without any party labels, was on the ballot. It received 44.5% of the vote. Proponents of the 2016 initiative spent approximately $1,600,000, whereas opponents spent $300,000.
The proponents are trying again, although this time their initiative leaves party labels on the ballot. The same New York-based organization Open Primaries, which had contributed $1,356,720 in 2016, has just forwarded $140,000 to pay circulators to get the new initiative on the ballot. See this story.
Open Primaries gets most of its money from the John and Laura Arnold Foundation, which is based in Houston, Texas.
On August 24, the 3-judge court that earlier struck down Texas U.S. House district boundaries ruled that the new districts must be drawn in time for the 2018 election. Because Texas has a March primary, that may require the legislature to come into special session this year. The case is Perez v Abbott, w.d., SA-11-cv-360. Here is the decision. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner says he will sign SB 1933 on Monday, August 28. This is the bill to automatically every adult citizen living in Illinois known to exist. Such individuals are then notified that they are registered, and if they wish, they may then remove themselves from the rolls. See this story.
This change will make ballot access easier in Illinois, as time goes on, because a much larger proportion of petition signatures will be valid than they would have been otherwise.
