On March 18, Common Cause dismissed its very old lawsuit against the North Carolina law that prevents an independent voter from ever serving on a county election board, or on the state election board. Common Cause v Moore, m.d., 1:22cv-611. It had been filed in 2022. A precedessor lawsuit on the same subject had been filed in 2018. No decision was ever reached in either case.
On April 9, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. voluntarily dismissed his New York ballot access case, Team Kennedy v Berger, s.d., 1:24cv-3897.
This is somewhat old news, but was not previously reported. On March 14, 2024, the Fifth Circuit voted 10-5 not to rehear Republican National Committee v Wetzel, 24-60395. The original panel had voted that Mississippi was breaking federal law when it allowed mailed ballots to be counted even though they had not been received in the elections office by election day. The original panel said the 19th century federal law that tells the states they must hold congressional elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November means that all ballots must be received by election day.Here is the order denying rehearing. The Fifth Circuit decision is at odds with virtually every other lawsuit on this subject.
It is extremely likely that case will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On April 16, North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong signed HB 1297, which bans Approval Voting and ranked choice voting. Fargo has been using Approval Voting for four years, but now it can’t use that system any more.
A similar bill had been vetoed two years ago but the previous Governor.
Fifteen states, all with Republican-majority legislatures, have now banned ranked choice voting. The others are Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
On March 13, President Donald Trump had asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of lower court injunctions in birthright citizenship cases. On April 17, the U.S. Supreme Court said it won’t decide that until after it hears oral arguments on Thursday, May 15. All three pending cases will be combined for that hearing. They are Trump v Casa, 24A884; Trump v Washington, 24A885; and Trump v New Jersey, 24A886. The first case originated in Maryland. Each side will have one hour.
There are already over a dozen amicus curiae briefs in these cases, with more likely. They are on both sides.
