On May 1, some Louisiana voters filed a state court lawsuit to stop the state from redrawing U.S. House districts effective for this year’s election. Sims v Landry. Here is the Complaint. This is an ACLU case.
1
On April 30, U.S. District Court Judge Mark E. Walker, an Obama appointee, upheld many severe Florida restrictions on the initiative process, including the new ban on out-of-state circulators. Florida Decides Healthcare v Byrd, n.d., 4:25cv-211. See this story.
Here is the Opinion. It says, near the beginning, “Indeed, before the Legislature enacted the challenged legislation at issue in this case, the chances of successfully proposing and passing a statewide ballot initiative was an uphill battle unless a sponsor was able to marshall enormous resources and put them to work in a massive statewide campaign. Now, according to Plaintiffs, that process has gotten even more challenging, inefficient, and expensive due to new restrictions imposed by HB 1205.” Judge Walker had previously enjoined the part of the new law that bans out-of-state circulators, but the Eleventh Circuit had reversed him on a 2-1 vote, despite all the case law in the last 25 years from other circuits that had struck down bans on out-of-state circulators.
The decision will be appealed.
On April 30, the Illinois Independence Party filed this reply brief in Team Kennedy v Illinois State Board of Elections, n.d., 1:24cv-7027. This is the case that challenges the Illinois law that says that if a circulator worked on a primary petition, he or she then can’t work on a general election petition in the same year. Because most petitioning in difficult states is carried out by professional petitioners, this law has a major impact on the ability of minor party and independent candidates to access the ballot.
On April 30, Rusty Hicks, the chair of the California Democratic party, said in an interview that the top-two system should be repealed.
Also see this Washington Examiner article about other California political leaders who want to change the system.
On April 30, the Rhode Island House passed HB 7090 unanimously. It moves the presidential primary from late April to early March. The bill has no effect on deadlines for general election ballot access.