On September 25, Michael Bost filed his Reply brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Bost v Illinois State Board of Elections, 24-568. This is the last brief before the case is argued on October 8. This is a rare election law case, because the ACLU, the Republican Party, and the U.S. government are all on the same side, the side that argues in favor of standing.
Ireland elects a president on October 24. There are three candidates on the ballot. All three of them will participate in the debates. See this story.
On September 28, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he is abandoning his re-election campaign. He is on the ballot as an independent. Polls show him at fourth place, behind Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo, and Curtis Sliwa.
His name will remain on the ballot.
Political scientists Boris Shor and Nolan McCarty have done more work on polarization in state legislatures than any other researchers in this decade. Their massive study of polarization can be seen in the Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy, 2022, vol. 3, at pages 343-370. The title of their paper is “Two Decades of Polarization in American State Legislatures”. It finds the five most polarized state legislatures to be those of Colorado, California, Arizona, Texas, and Washington. See page 352. See the article here.
California and Washington state are the two states that use a top-two system. Proponents of top-two systems have always argued that top-two systems reduce polarization, but the date in the paper rebuts this idea.
Nebraska is the only state that has a non-partisan state legislature. Page 356 of the paper says, “Nebraska has polarized extremely rapidly.”
On September 26, the Missouri Secretary of State rejected the paperwork for a referendum petition on the grounds that the bill on redistricting hadn’t been signed yet. See this story.
But, Governor Mike Kehoe has said he will sign the bill on Sunday, September 28.
