On July 12, the Arizona Secretary of State settled the Arizona Green Party lawsuit over the timing of presidential elector filing. Even though the party was late filing its list of presidential elector candidates, the Secretary of State is asking a U.S. District Court to issue an injunction allowing the filing to be considered valid. Sometimes when ballot access lawsuits are filed, states agree with the plaintiffs and there is no need for further court activity. The case is Arizona Green Party v Reagan, 2:16cv-2027.

The Arizona Libertarian Party had also been late with its presidential elector candidates in 1996, but had won a similar case in state court, although that 1996 case was contested. It seems somewhat likely that in 2017 the Arizona legislature may change the law on presidential elector filing. The current law has a June 1 deadline for parties to submit their presidential elector candidates, but that deadline is a relic of the days when parties chose presidential elector candidates in primaries. There is no rational reason for the elector candidates to be chosen so early, before the major parties even know who their presidential and vice-presidential nominees will be. This story says the Secretary of State will ask the 2017 session of the legislature to revise the deadline.

On July 11, a U.S. District Court in Virginia enjoined the state law that tells delegates to major party presidential conventions that they must vote for the candidate who won the Virginia presidential primary for that party. However, the decision will have little practical effect. The national party is still free to have its own rules binding delegates. The case had been filed by Beau Correll, a Republican delegate who supports U.S. Senator Ted Cruz for the Republican nomination.

The case is Correll v Herring, e.d., 3:16cv-467. The decision is 65 pages long.

On July 8, Connecticut State Senator Edwin Gomes won a lawsuit in state court in Bridgeport. The court ordered that he be placed on the Democratic primary ballot, for the August 9 primary. Under Connecticut law, anyone who has at least 15% of the delegates at a party endorsement meeting is entitled to run in the primary. Gomes received that level of support at a recent Democratic Party meeting, but the officials who ran the meeting failed to notify the Secretary of State that Gomes had that much support.

Gomes won his last election to the Connecticut Senate as the nominee of the Working Families Party, but he is a registered Democrat and wanted the 2016 Democratic nomination.