Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, recently e-mailed Republican members of county election boards, and urged them to eliminate early voting on Sundays. The state recently lost a lawsuit over early voting in general. The Fourth Circuit opinion ordered the state to reinstate the generous early voting period, and the state is trying to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse that. But even if the U.S. Supreme Court declines to reverse the Fourth Circuit, county boards are still free to eliminate Sunday early voting if they wish.

However, data has shown that early voting on Sunday is disproportionately used by African American voters. Churches frequently organize car pools for early voting, following church service. The publicity about Woodhouse’s e-mail, trying to stop Sunday early voting, will harm the state’s chances of persuading the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the Fourth Circuit. The Fourth Circuit had found that Republicans in the North Carolina legislature changed many voting laws in 2013 in order to injure African Americans, and the recent e-mail from Woodhouse only appears to bolster that conclusion. See this story. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link. UPDATE: the U.S. Supreme Court case is North Carolina v North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, 16A168. Chief Justice John Roberts has asked the NAACP to file a response by August 25 at 4 p.m.

On August 18, the California Assembly passed SB 1288, letting all cities and counties use instant runoff voting for elections for their own officers. The vote was 48-26. The bill must now return to the State Senate, because the Assembly had amended the bill slightly. Six Democrats in the Assembly voted “no”; five Republicans voted “yes.” In the past, Republicans in the California legislature had been uniformly hostile to IRV, so the support from a few Republican legislators is a surprise.

Under current law, only charter cities and charter counties can use IRV. Thanks to Steve Chessin for this news.