On May 26, Level the Playing Field, Peter Ackerman, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein filed this amended complaint, asking that the court order the Federal Election Commission to require the Commission on Presidential Debates to revise its debate invitation criteria. The case is Level the Playing Field v FEC, U.S. District Court, D.C., 1:15cv-1397. Thanks to IVN for this news.
On May 25, some Georgia voters filed a state court lawsuit against the Georgia Secretary of State, seeking an order that the government use paper ballots for the upcoming June 20 special U.S. House election. Georgia uses vote-counting machines that do not have an audit trail. The case is Curling v Kemp, Superior Court, Fulton County, 2017cv-290630. A hearing is set for June 7 at 10 a.m.
There has been prior litigation in Georgia against the vote-counting equipment. So far none of them has succeeded.
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to grant a stay in Gill v Whitford, 16-1161, at its Thursday, June 8 conference. This is the case in which the lower 3-judge U.S. District Court determined that the Wisconsin legislative district boundaries constitute an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
The U.S. Supreme Court wants the opponents of the gerrymander to file a brief on June 7, and then the Court will decide whether the state must now implement a new districting plan, or whether the state can delay that until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether the lower court was correct.
On May 26, the California Secretary of State filed this brief in Koller v Brown, n.d., 5:16cv-7069. This is the lawsuit over the law that tells presidential electors that they must vote for the presidential candidate who got the most popular votes in the state.
The brief tries to persuade the court that the case is moot, and says little about the merits of the case.
On May 29, the British Columbia Green Party announced that it will work with New Democratic Party legislators to organize the provincial legislature. See this story. No party has a majority, so it was up to the Greens to decide whether to choose the NDP or the Liberal Party.
On Wednesday, May 31, the two governing parties will announce what they have decided about electoral reform.
