US democracy continues to deteriorate with this news.
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On August 19, the Colorado Libertarian Party released an invitation to major party candidates to sign a pledge on certain political issues. Major party candidates who sign the pledge with then avoid having a Libertarian Party opponent. See this story.
There is nothing about this so far on the Colorado Libertarian Party’s website.
On August 19, U.S. District Court Judge Sharion Aycock, a Bush Jr. appointee, issued an opinion in White v State Board of Election Commissioners, n.d., 4:22cv-62. The opinion finds that Mississippi’s three Supreme Court Judicial districts violated the federal Voting Rights Act. Mississippi elects its State Supreme Court justices from three districts. Each district elects three judges. No Black candidate has ever won one of these elections. The elections are non-partisan.
On August 19, U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi issued an order in Kim v Hanlon, the case over New Jersey ballot format in primary elections. The judge wants each side to submit a brief on whether or not the case should be dismissed on standing grounds. The order says none of the plaintiffs have alleged that they expect to run for office in future elections.
The judge had enjoined New Jersey’s ballot format last year, but so far there has still been no resolution on whether the ballot format is unconstitutional. The legislature has already modified the old ballot format law.
The lead plaintiff, Senator Andy Kim, probably expects to run for re-election in 2030, when is term is up, so presumably his brief will say that.
On August 18, four California Republican state legislators filed a lawsuit in the State Supreme Court to slow down the redistricting bills. The case does not go to the merits of redistricting. Instead, it says that the California Constitution does not permit the redistricting bills to move through the legislature as quickly as the bill’s authors intend. Strickland v Weber, S292490.