On February 9, the Fourth Circuit issued an opinion in National Federation for the Blind v Lamone, 14-2001. The Fourth Circuit agrees with the U.S. District Court, which in 2014 said Maryland must permit blind voters to mark absentee ballots at home with help from an “online ballot marking tool.” Such voters may print a ballot from the internet, and then use the device to mark it. The decision is based on the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

See this story, which explains how the tool works. The story is from 2014, when the U.S. District Court opinion came out. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link to the decision.

On February 8, the South Dakota State Senate defeated SB 95 by 24-8. This is the bill that would have let candidates in primaries, and also independent candidates, use filing fees instead of petitions. The bill only applied to Congress and state office.

On February 9, a Connecticut state trial court heard arguments in Morris v Giesing, which challenges a state law that says no one can circulate a petition for a candidate to get on a primary ballot unless the circulator has been a member of the same party as the candidate for at least three months. The candidate, a Democrat, circulated his own petition, but all the signatures he collected were invalidated because he has only been a Democrat since December 2015. See this story. A decision is expected by Friday, February 12. The Defendant argued that there would be “chaos” if anyone could circulate a petition.