On January 4, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) introduced S.26, which requires major party presidential candidates to file a copy with their federal income tax returns with the Federal Election Commission, and also requires sitting presidents to release their tax returns. Here is the bill. It has ten co-sponsors.

“Major party” presidential nominees are those whose party received at least 25% of the vote in the previous presidential election.

If the candidate does not release the tax return, the FEC will then ask the IRS to release it to the FEC, so that the public can see it. This is a far better approach than using ballot access laws to compel release of the return.

North Carolina is waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide if the entire state legislature will be up for election in November 2017. Normally North Carolina, like 45 other states, elects all its legislators in even years. But on November 29, 2016, a 3-judge U.S. District Court had told the state to redraw all its legislative districts by March 15, 2017, and then to hold legislative elections in those new districts later that year.

The state hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will cancel the order. The Court has this case on its January 19, 2017 conference. The case is North Carolina v Covington, 16-649.

According to this story, Jill Stein did not spend all the money she raised for the recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. She will use the balance, estimate to be between $1,500,000 and $2,000,000, for a new organization that will work on integrity of elections.