Court Gives Plaintiffs in North Carolina Redistricting Case Time to Object to Legislature’s New Plan

Posted on by February 24, 2016
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On February 23, the federal court that is hearing the North Carolina U.S. House redistricting lawsuit gave the plaintiffs time to file objections to the new plan drawn up by the legislature recently. The brief of the plaintiffs is due February 29. The state’s response is due by March 7, and the reply brief is due March 9. Harris v McCrory, m.d., 1:13cv-949.

If the plaintiffs persuade the 3 judges that the new plan is deficient, then it is likely the judges will prepare their own plan. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.

Maryland Bill to Ease Definition of “Political Party”

Posted on by February 24, 2016
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Maryland Delegate Jill P. Carter (D-Baltimore) has introduced HB 1301, to ease the definition of “political party.” Existing law says a party is a group that has membership of 1% of the state registration total, or which polled 1% for the office at the top of the ticket in the last election, or which submits a petition of 10,000 signatures.

The bill changes the 1% registration test to exactly 10,000 members. The bill is supremely logical. If a party has over 10,000 registered members, it seems superflous to require it to submit 10,000 signatures to show it has support from that many people. Obviously it already has the support of 10,000 voters if it has that many registered voters. The bill has a hearing in the House Ways & Means Committee on March 14, Monday, at 1 p.m.

The bill has four co-sponsors, all Democrats: Delegates Brooke Lierman, David Moon, Marice Morales, and Shane Robinson. A similar bill in the 2015 session, HB 626, did not pass. The 2015 bill had three sponsors. Thanks to Eric Blitz for this news.

Nevada Republican Rules Allocate Delegates Proportionally

Posted on by February 23, 2016
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Nevada Republican rules generally allocate delegates according to the share of the popular caucus vote, although candidates who poll less than 3.3% of the statewide vote are excluded. Based on the results as of 10 p.m., it appears that the following presidential candidates received delegates from Nevada: Donald Trump 13; Marco Rubio 7; Ted Cruz 7; Ben Carson 2; John Kasich 1.

Here is a detailed discussion of the Nevada Republican rules, from FrontloadingHQ.