A California Superior Court recently reversed and course and cancelled cumulative voting for city council elections in Santa Clarita, California. See this story.
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On September 23, the conference committee of the North Carolina legislature decided that HB 373 will provide that all 2016 primaries will be in March. See this story. Traditionally the state has held primaries for all office in May.
Candidates running in primaries will be required to file by December 21, 2015.
The bill has no effect on the petition deadlines for newly-qualifying parties or independent candidates. New party petitions will continue to be due in May, and independent candidate petitions in June. Here is the text of the bill. The bill’s provisions concerning the date of primaries only applies to 2016, not years further into the future. Both houses are expected to vote on the bill on September 24.
On September 23, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced the locations and dates for the general election presidential debates. All four will be at universities. The three presidential debates will be September 26, October 9, and October 19, in 2016. The vice-presidential debate will be October 4. See the Commission’s press release.
The Commission says it will announce news about the criteria for being invited into the debates soon.
On September 23, a trial court in North Carolina ruled that the current lawsuit against the state law on government photo-ID for voters at the polls may continue. The legislature had eased the requirement earlier this year, and then argued that the case against the original photo-ID law should be dismissed on the grounds that it is moot. But today’s ruling says the plaintiffs may continue to attack the new, less restrictive ID rules. See this. Plaintiffs argue that the state constitution forbids any photo-ID requirement.
On September 21, the Modern Whig Party informed Michigan’s Secretary of State that it is about to start collecting signatures on a petition to be on the 2016 ballot. Michigan lets petitioning groups set their own petitioning period, but the job must be done in six months. So now the Modern Whig Party must collect 31,519 signatures by March 18, 2016. Thanks to John Wilhelm for this news.