Here is a description of the July 9 session of the North Carolina hearing, in the case filed by the NAACP and the League of Women Voters, over the 2013 voting changes passed by the legislature. The trial continues on July 10, and then will end.
According to this story, the Republican Party’s choice of Cleveland for the 2016 national convention does not foreclose either a June 27 opening date, or a July 18 opening date.
According to this story, a June 27 opening date might conflict with the National Basketball Association championship games.
A national convention that is held in June gives an opportunity for people unsatisfied with the results of the convention considerable time to support a presidential candidate running outside the two major parties. All but four states have a method for a candidate to get on the ballot for President with a deadline in July, August or September. The four states with earlier deadlines are North Carolina, Texas, New Mexico, and Illinois.
The Casper Star Tribune has this editorial, condemning state election laws that discriminate against minor party candidates.
On July 9, True the Vote re-filed its lawsuit True the Vote v Hosemann in the southern district of Mississippi. Last week the organization had filed the same case in the northern district, but then the judge who received the case in the northern district hinted that the case should have been filed in the southern district, so True the Vote took the hint. The southern district contains Jackson, the state capital.
The issue in the case is whether federal law requires state officials and Republican Party officials to provide data about how many Mississippi voters voted in the Democratic primary on June 3, and then the Republican run-off primary for U.S. Senate on June 24. Voters are not supposed to do that. The plaintiffs hope to show that the run-off results should be overturned.
The case is now 3:14cv-532, and is assigned to Judge Henry T. Wingate, a Reagan appointee. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the news.
Scott Lay, editor of the well-read California politics blog Around the Capitol, here discusses this year’s race for the State Senate, 26th district. Scroll down to the third entry that is labelled “SD 26.” In June 2014, seven Democrats and one independent appeared on the ballot. Two Democrats came in first and second and will oppose each other in November.
Proponents of the top-two system say this is how their system operates at its best, because the more “moderate” of the two Democrats will win the votes of centrist independents and Republicans. But, Lay points out that if one of the two Democrats is then perceived as someone who is uninterested in the principles and interests of Democrats, the other Democrat will gain an advantage in the general election by pointing this out. A majority of the voters in the district are supportive of the Democratic Party. Lay also points out that it appears a very large proportion of the Republican voters in the June primary simply left the office blank.
One of the two Democrats who will be on the November ballot is Sandra Fluke, who became nationally famous (at least briefly) when Rush Limbaugh referred to her as a “slut” after she testified in Congress about health insurance and contraceptives.
