The U.S. Supreme Court has again put off the conference date for Meadors v Erie County Board of Elections, 24-684, the case over the May petition deadline for independent candidate petitions in New York. The original conference date had been April 25, but that had been moved to May 2. Now it has been moved again to an unspecified future date.
On April 29, the Second Circuit heard oral argument in Walden v Kosinski, 25-764. The issue is the 2022 New York law that makes it illegal for an independent candidate to choose the ballot label “Independence.” The plaintiff is a candidate for Mayor this year and is petitioning to be on the November ballot under that name.
The three judges are Alison Nathan, Gerard Lynch (Obama appointees) and Eunice Lee (Biden). The argument lasts 47 minutes. Anyone can hear the oral argument using this link. Click on “2025”. Then click on “25-76” on the left, in the fourth line labelled Walden v Kosinski.
Two Republican members of the U.S. House have introduced a bill to outlaw ranked choice voting in federal elections. The bill does not yet have a bill number. The sponsors are Nick Begich of Alaska, and Abraham Hamadeh of Arizona.
On April 25, two Pennsylvania voters filed their brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Republican National Committee v Genser, 24-786. The issue is whether provisional ballots can be counted if the original postal ballot was disqualified, due to the voter’s having failed to put the date on the outer envelope. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had ruled that such provisional ballots can be counted. The Republican National Committee then challenged this decision in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the U.S. Constitution does not permit state courts to adjudicate election law disputes pertaining to federal elections.
Here is the brief of the voters.
Canada held a national parliamentary election on April 28. Preliminary results show: Liberal 168 seats, Conservative 144, Bloc Quebecois 23, New Democratic 7, Green 1. No party won a majority. There are 343 seats, so a majority needs 172.
