On July 21, Virginia held a special election for Delegate, 74th district, in the Richmond area. The vote: Democrat Lamont Bagby 2,192 votes; independent candidate David Lambert 398 votes.
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On July 21, the South Dakota Libertarian Party and the South Dakota Constitution Party filed an amended complaint in their lawsuit against the South Dakota deadline for a new party to get on the ballot. The case had been filed on June 15 to challenge the March 1 deadline that the legislature had passed this year, as part of SB 69. After the case was filed, opponents SB 69 filed a referendum petition, which suspends SB 69 until the voters vote on it in November 2016.
In response to the referendum petition, the state filed a brief saying the lawsuit should be dismissed, because the issue of the March 1 deadline may be moot if the voters reject the new law.
The two political parties have now responded by saying they also believe the original March 29 deadline is unconstitutionally early. The March 29 deadline was passed in 2007 and was in effect until SB 69 passed. Technically the March 29 deadline is still in effect, at least for the 2016 election. Before 2007, the deadline had been in April. No one had previously challenged the March 29 deadline in court.
The judge will soon decide whether the plaintiffs are permitted to amend their complaint at this stage of the lawsuit. It is likely that she will permit the new Complaint to be admitted.
A Florida group that supports top-two says it has rewritten its proposed initiative, and will start to collect signatures soon. The revised measure holds the actual election for state and county office in August, and only if no one gets 50% will there be a runoff in November. However, because federal law requires states to hold congressional elections in November in all districts, for Congress the measure won’t let anyone be elected in August, and the election between the top-two will be in November even if someone running for Congress does get 50% or more in August. See this story.
The story has some factual errors. It says Washington state started using top-two in 2004, but actually Washington started using it in 2008. The story says Nebraska has a top-two system. Nebraska has never had a top-two system. It has semi-closed primaries for president, congress, state executive office, and partisan county office. For legislature it has non-partisan elections with no party labels on the ballot.
The plaintiffs in Tuaua v U.S. have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. circuit, to rehear their lawsuit. The issue is whether the 14th amendment, which says “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside”, applies to persons born in American Samoa. A three-judge panel had ruled against citizenship. The request for rehearing asks that all judges of the D.C. circuit participate.
That section of the Constitution has always been interpreted to mean that residents of the District of Columbia are U.S. citizens. Congress has by statute made residents of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico citizens, but Congress has never extended citizenship to persons born in American Samoa. See this press release. Thanks to How Appealing for the link.
The July 19 New York Post has this editorial, which argues that the New York legislature should ban fusion, the ability of two or more parties to jointly nominate the same candidate.
In 1912, the New York State Court of Appeals, the highest state court in New York, ruled that the New York Constitution requires that the state permit fusion. However, the State Constitution is significantly different today than it was in 1912.