On June 9, the Third Circuit issued this opinion in Rodriquez v 32nd Legislature of the Virgin Islands, 17-1518. It says that no court can decide whether Kevin Rodriquez meets the qualifications to be in the legislature. Only the legislature itself can decide that. The federal law that functions as the Constitution of the U.S. Virgin Islands has a three-year residency requirement for members of the legislature. After Rodriquez was elected in November 2016, he was not seated, because it was discovered that he had sworn (during a bankruptcy proceeding) that he had been a resident of Tennessee for the past few years.

The Virgin Islands had then held a special election to fill his seat on April 8, 2017, which was won by an independent candidate, Janelle Sarauw. However because the dispute was unresolved, the Virgin Islands election authorities refused to certify the results. Lawsuits had been filed in both the Virgin Islands court system and the federal court system, but their only result has been to tell the legislature to make its own determination as to whether Rodriquez satisfies the residency requirement.

North Carolina law does not permit anyone to serve on the State Board of Elections, or a county board, unless that voter is a registered member of one of the two largest parties in the state. On June 7, Michael Crowell, an independent voter and an attorney, sued on his own behalf to overturn that law. Crowell v North Carolina, m.d., 1:17cv-515. Here is the Complaint. Thanks to Brian Irving for the news.

On June 12, the Maine legislature passed HB 1571 and sent it to the Governor. It makes some improvements for ballot access for new parties. It makes it easier for newly-qualifying parties to remain on the ballot, by giving them two elections to increase their registration to 10,000 people who will actually go to the polls and cast a vote. Also it slightly improves the deadline for a new party to get its necessary 5,000 registrants to qualify for the first time. And, it sets up a procedure to resolve any dispute as to whether the group successfully did get 5,000 registrants.

Assuming the bill is signed into law, it will still be flawed. It is fundamentally irrational to require a newly-qualifying party to have 5,000 registrants to get on, but 10,000 to remain on. If 5,000 means that the party has a modicum of support, then that is true no matter how young or old the party is. Also the new deadline, January of the election year, is still far too early to survive a constitutional challenge by some new party in the future.

The bill passed on voice votes, with apparently no opposition.