On August 2, the last day of the Maine legislature, LD 31 was again defeated. It would have imposed a distribution requirement on statewide initiatives. Currently initiatives need a petition of 10% of the last gubernatorial vote. The bill would have said the petition needs the same requirement in each of the two U.S. House districts.
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.
Every year the Federal Election Commission publishes a very useful free reference book that contains contact information for state election officials. The 2017 “Combined Federal/State Disclosure and Election Directory” is now in print. It can be obtained by phoning the FEC at 800-424-9530. The 147 pages of content are also on the FEC’s web page.
The book also has a section mentioning which legislative committees in each state handle election law bills.
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 25, U.S. District Court Judge James Cacheris, a Reagan appointee, ruled that public officials who set up a Facebook page for discussion of public policy, and who invite public comments, can’t single out particular individuals and bar them from commenting. The page was set up by Phyllis Randall, Chair of the Loudon County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors. Davison v Loudon County Board of Supervisors, e.d. Virginia, 1:16cv-932. Here is the opinion.
The County argued that it doesn’t pay for the Facebook page. But the name of the page is “Chair Phyllis Randall”. The ruling finds that web page still is intrinsically a government-related form of communication, so the free speech provision of the First Amendment applies. Thanks to the Center for Competitive Politics for this news.
