As of October 17, the Speaker of the U.S. House is still refusing to swear in Adelita Grijalva, who was elected to Congress in a special Arizona election on September 23. In 1966 the U.S. House speaker had similarly refused to swear in Adam Clayton Powell, who had been re-elected from New York. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1969 that the House had been wrong to refuse to seat him. Here is a description of Powell v McCormack, 395 US 486.
On October 16, the highest state court in New York, the State Court of Appeals, issued an opinion in County of Onondaga v State of New York, case number 66. Here is the opinion.
New York will still hold elections in November of odd years, but only for elections for Supreme Court Justice and city office.
On October 16, the Georgia House Election Procedures Committee heard testimony from members of the public about ideas for improving election laws. Brian Allen, a Georgia Libertarian, asked the committee to ease ballot access petitions. See this story in the Augusta Press, which mentions his testimony.
The Georgia legislature is not now in session, so there are no bills pending.
On October 15, the Missouri legislature and the Secretary of State filed a federal lawsuit to invalidate the ongoing referendum petition on U.S. House districts. Missouri General Assembly v von Glahn, 4:25cv-1535. Here is the Complaint. It says the U.S. Constitution, Article One, provides that only state legislators and congress itself can write election laws relating to Congressional elections.
The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Zachary M. Bluestone, a Trump appointee.
The Complaint admits that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Arizona State Legislature v Arizona State Redistricting Commission that this theory is wrong, but says that case was different because the Arizona Constitution itself permitted an independent redistricting commission. This is a weak argument, but it shows how badly the Missouri legislature wants to undermine direct democracy.
In 1922, the Missouri legislature passed a U.S. House redistricting plan and the voters circulated a referendum petition against the plan, and voted it down. Therefore there is precedent that the referendum can be used in Missouri to reject districting plans.
On the evening of October 16, three candidates for Mayor of New York City participated in a two-hour debate. The candidates were Andrew Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani, and Curtis Sliwa. The moderators asked about Israel and Gaza, about what the candidates order when they are at a restaurant, and what sports events they would attend if there were two competing games on the same night. They asked about what parades the candidates were attend if they were Mayor. But not a word was said about voting rights.
New York has a voting rights crisis. New York was the only state in November 2024 in which Kamala Harris and Donald Trump were on the ballot. And the man responsible for that was Andrew Cuomo, one of the three debaters.
Each of the three candidates was asked which politician they most admire. Sliwa said George Pataki, a former Republican Governor. Andrew Cuomo chose his father, Mario Cuomo, also a former New York Governor. Mamdani chose Bernie Sanders.
