On December 8, Arizona Congressmember Trent Franks said he is resigning from the House effective immediately. He represents the 8th district, centered on the suburbs west of Phoenix.

When the special election is called, it will be interesting to see if any reduction in the number of signatures will be ordered. Independent candidates in the typical U.S. House district in Arizona need approximately 5,000 signatures, but in a regular election an independent may take as long as desired to get those signatures. But in special election the petitioning period will be short.

Early in 2017, various California voters, groups, and even a city, sued California alleging that because the population of California legislative districts is so great, the state is violating the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the citizens of each state a republican form of government. The lawsuit argues that because Assembly districts have almost 500,000 people, and State Senate districts almost 1,000,000, there is no ability for ordinary people to enjoy meaningful communication with their state legislators.

The case, Citizens for Fair Representation v Padilla, e.d., 2:17cv-973, had a hearing on September 8, and Judge Kimberly Mueller still hasn’t decided how the plaintiffs may amend their complaint or whether the case will get a 3-judge court.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder says he will call a special election to fill the vacant 13th district U.S. House seat. See this story. Michigan has more ballot-qualified parties than any other state in the midwest, and all of them will be able to nominate a candidate with no petition. Besides the two major parties, the Libertarian, Green, Constitution, Natural Law, and Working Class Parties are on the ballot. The name of the Constitution Party in Michigan is the U.S. Taxpayers Party. The state won’t let the party change its name. U.S. Taxpayers Party nationally changed its name to Constitution Party in 1999, and all the other states where it was on the ballot let it change its name, if the state party wanted to change its name.