The American Spectator recently published this article about the federal lawsuit Citizens for Fair Representation v Padilla, the case that argues the California legislative districts have such huge populations, the state is in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Thanks to Scott Stafne for the link.
Maryland State Board of Elections has released a new tally of voter registration, as of the end of June 2017. Percentages are: Democratic 54.83%; Republican 25.95%; Libertarian .52%; Green .24%; independent and other 18.46%.
Just before the November 2016 election, the percentages had been: Democratic 55.00%; Republican 26.01%; Libertarian .49%; Green .23%; independent and other 18.27%.
On July 7, a Virgin Islands Superior Court ruled that the Board of Elections must certify the special legislative election of April 8, 2017. Independent candidate Janelle Sarauw had won that election. But then the Board had refused to certify the election, believing that the election should never have been held because there was no vacancy. Until the election was certified, Sarauw couldn’t take her seat.
The uncertainty on whether there was a vacancy hinged on whether the winner of the same district in November met the constitutional qualifications to be in the legislature. The Virgin Islands has a three-year residency requirement for members of its legislature. The winner of the November 2016 election was later found to have claimed residence in Tennessee in a court proceeding in Tennessee. Both federal and state courts refused to settle the residency requirement, instead ruling that only the legislature could judge the qualifications of its members. Finally, on June 28, the legislature had voted that the November 2016 winner is not qualified. Yet, despite this vote in the legislature, the elections board had still refused to certify the special election results. See this story.
On July 11, the New Mexico Supreme Court refused to expedite a ballot access case filed by a candidate for Albuquerque Mayor, Stella Padilla. This means that even if the candidate eventually wins the case in the State Supreme Court, it will be too late for her to run in this year’s election.
Padilla had sued the city clerk for rejecting signatures on her petition that actually are valid, in the opinion of the candidate. But the lower state court rejected the case on the grounds that candidates don’t have standing to sue when their petition signatures are improperly ruled invalid. According to the lower state court judge, only the petition signers whose signatures were rejected have standing to sue. That, in my opinion, is absurd, and a gross misuse of standing doctrine. See this story.
The election is October 3, 2017. The election is non-partisan. All candidates needed 3,000 signatures to get on the ballot. Padilla may bring a federal lawsuit. So far no court has actually dealt with whether Padilla does or does not have enough valid signatures. The City Clerk says Padilla is 171 signatures short, but Padilla hired an investigator who revalidated signatures and determined she does have enough.
Ordinarily Louisiana elects all its state officers, both executive and legislative, in the years before presidential elections. But Louisiana will hold a special election this year, for Treasurer, on October 7. According to this story, so far three Republicans, one Democrat, and one Libertarian have filed. Filing hasn’t closed yet.
