On October 10, a New Jersey state appellate court ruled that Gloucester County cannot use office-group ballots in general elections, and must reprint ballots using a party column format. See this story.

The lawsuit was Gloucester County Republican Committee v Hogan, L1286-25.

New Jersey law lets county clerks design ballots, but the Court said they are constrained by a state law that says a drawing shall be held before every election to determine the order of party columns. This was held to mean that there must be party columns.

Several other New Jersey counties have been using office-group ballots in general elections for years.

Here is what the Gloucester County ballot looked like before the court ruling.

An initiative petition is circulating in Nebraska that would end the practice of letting each U.S. House district elect its own presidential elector. See this story.

On October 16, the U.S. Supreme Court removed Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians v Howe from its November 7 conference. This is the case on North Dakota legislative redistricting. The lower court had ruled that the case couldn’t even be considered because only the federal government can file lawsuits using the Voting Rights Act. Probably the U.S. Supreme Court won’t consider whether to hear the North Dakota case until after it decides the pending Louisiana districting case.

In other U.S. Supreme Court news, the court will hear oral argument in National Republican Senatorial Committee v Federal Election Commission on December 9. This is the case over the federal campaign finance law that restricts political party spending.