On October 7, a U.S. District Court in Hawaii held a trial in Democratic Party of Hawaii v Nago, 1:13cv-301. According to this story, Judge J. Michael Seabright has not decided the case yet, but he did indicate that if he concludes that the Hawaii law imposes a severe burden on the Democratic Party, he will strike it down.

The lawsuit was filed by the party to escape the open primary, and to let the party restrict its primary to party members. Presumably if the party wins the case, the state will begin asking voters to choose a party on voter registration forms. Currently, Hawaii voter registration forms do not ask about party membership. When the Idaho Republican Party won a similar lawsuit, the legislature changed the voter registration forms to include a party membership question.

The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has this editorial, cricitizing the Commonwealth Court decision of last week that keeps Nevin Mindlin, independent for Mayor of Harrisburg, off the ballot.

On October 7, Arizona Attorney General Thomas C. Horne, a Republican, ruled that voters who registered to vote with the federal voter registration form are not entitled to vote in state or local elections. Furthermore, they are not entitled to sign ballot measure petitions, nor candidate petitions (unless the candidates are running for Congress or President). The Opinion does not say if such voters can sign a petition to recognize a new party.

The obvious flaw with the Opinion is that there is no Arizona election law that says there should be two separate lists of registered voters, one entitled to vote in all elections, and another to vote only in federal elections. If the Attorney General had ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not prohibit the legislature from establishing two separate lists, that Opinion might stand (although courts have invalidated such dual lists in other states, based on state constitutional guarantees that elections be “free and equal”). But it seems unlikely that courts would agree that the Attorney General himself, by this opinion, can now tell elections officials to establish two separate lists of registered voters.

The federal form has existed for twenty years.