On December 9, opponents of the new Missouri U.S. House district boundaries submitted 305,000 signatures on a referendum petition. Under normal Missouri practice, that should be enough to stop the new law (with the new district boundaries) from taking effect until the voters vote on the measure. The requirement is approximately 110,000 signatures.

However, the Secretary of State says he doesn’t need to check the signatures until July 2026, which would mean that the referendum had been filed too late. See this story.

The Secretary of State also says he has the authority to declare that the referendum process can’t be used to influence U.S. House districts, because some people believe that the initiative and referendum can’t be used to write election laws for congressional elections.

On December 9, Florida and Georgia each held a special election for a state house seat. In Florida’s 90th district, the results were: Democratic 63.2%; Republican 35.9%; independent 1.0%. When the same seat had been up in November 2024, the results had been: Democratic 56.1%; Republican 43.9%.

In Georgia’s 121st district, the results were: Democratic 50.85%; Republican 49.15%, When the seat had last been up, in November 2024, the results had been: Republican 61.13%; Democratic 38.87%.

When Virginia was readmitted to the Union after the Civil War, the act said that as a condition of being readmitted, Virginia could not newly deprive anyone of the right to vote, except that persons who had committed “felonies at common law” could be deprived of the vote. In 2023 a federal lawsuit was filed by Virginia felons who had committee drug law feloonies, arguing that they should be allowed to register to vote under the terms of the 1870 readmission act.

Virginia objected that the readmission act could not be used as a basis for a lawsuit, but lost on that in the Fourth Circuit. The state then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but that court refused to hear the state’s appeal.

The case is back in U.S. District Court. Here is the latest brief, which was filed by the plaintiffs. It argues that the only “felonies at common law” in Virginia in 1870 were: arson, burglary, jail escape, homicide, larceny, mayhem, rape, robbery, sodomy, suicide, and treason. Therefore, the plaintiffs argue, the state can’t prevent people from registering to vote on the grounds that they committed a felony not on that historic list.

The case is King v O’Bannon, e.d., 3:23cv-408. The case is before Judge John A. Gibney, Jr., an Obama appointee.