On August 1, Washington state held special primary elections for eight different legislative seats. Here is a link to the Secretary of State’s election returns. The only races with any minor party candidates were the races for State Senate 48, and State Representative 48-1. Libertarians ran in both elections. With no Republicans running in those districts, the Libertarians did well: Michelle Darnell polled 23.66% for State Senate; Ciaran Dougherty polled 23.4% for Representative.

None of the eight seats are being filled by the August 1 election. These are only primaries, with the election itself set for November 7, 2017, in all eight races.

On July 31, a 3-judge U.S. District Court ruled that the North Carolina need not hold a special election in 2017 for state legislative seats. But it said the legislature must pass a redistricting legislative plan by September 1, for the 2018 election. This is all due to an earlier U.S. Supreme Court ruling, upholding a lower court ruling, that the current legislative districts are an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Covington v State of North Carolina, m.d., 1:15cv-399.

The plaintiffs had urged the court to redraw new districts now and then force the state to use those new districts in a special election held this year.

For the 2018 election only, the ruling suspends the North Carolina law that says candidates for the legislature must have lived in their district for one year. They will only need to live in their district when they file for office.

All North Carolina legislators, Senators and Representatives alike, have two-year terms. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

On July 28, U.S. District Court Judge W. Keith Watkins, a Bush Jr. appointee, refused to order Alabama election officials to notify many ex-felons that they are now free to register to vote. In the past Alabama had refused to let persons convicted of “moral turpitude” register to vote. But there was no objective standard for knowing which felonies counted, so generally election officials wouldn’t allow any ex-felon to register. But earlier this year the legislature passed HB 282, specifying which felonies are included in that term and which are not. The lawsuit is Thompson v State, m.d., 2:16cv-783.

The plaintiffs, ten voters representing a class of all affected individuals, had already filed a federal lawsuit against the old ex-felon enfranchisement policy. Because that case was still pending, they used that lawsuit to make a new demand that officials notify all the ex-felons who had previously been denied but whose felonies are not on the banned list, that they are now free to register. But U.S. District Court Judge W. Keith Watkins, a Bush Jr. appointee, said that this case cannot be used to do that. Here is his ruling denying injunctive relief. He implies that the plaintiffs should have filed a new lawsuit with a new class of voters. This part of the case had been expedited because the deadline for registering to vote in this year’s special election for U.S. Senate is July 31.

Judge Watkins is the judge who not only ruled against the Libertarian, Green and Constitution Parties in their 2012 lawsuit against the March petition deadline, he imposed court costs of $7,000 on the plaintiffs. The basis for that ruling was that the plaintiffs had missed a legal deadline to have their evidence admitted into the case. That debt has finally been satisfied, with money from the parties and also with substantial help from the Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE).