On September 11, 2014, Level the Playing Field asked the Federal Election Commission to issue regulations that would alter how presidential candidates gain access to general election debates. In response, the FEC invited members of the public to comment on the idea. That comment period ran from November 18 through December 15, so comments are now closed. Here is a link to the FEC notice, which includes a link to Level the Playing Field’s proposal. Level the Playing Field’s proposal contains a wealth of data showing that the status quo policy is not good policy.

Here is Fairvote’s analysis of the proposal.

In January, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein are likely to file a federal lawsuit against the Commission on Presidential Debates. Both of them are seeking the nomination of their parties for president in 2016.

On December 15, James Hall filed this supplemental brief in Hall v Bennett, now pending in U.S. District Court in the middle district of Alabama. The issue is whether independent and minor party congressional candidates in special elections can be forced to submit the same number of signatures as are required in regular elections. The basis for the lawsuit is that in normal elections, candidates have unlimited time to collect the signatures, whereas the time is severely compressed in special elections. This supplemental filing documents that special elections are always called on short notice in Alabama.

The oral argument was November 13, 2014, and Judge Myron Thompson seemed to be curious about the normal time pattern, so Hall did the research and presented it in the supplemental brief.

Lisa Madigan, Illinois Attorney General, agrees that incoming Governor Bruce Rauner has the authority to appoint a new State Comptroller to replace Judy Baar Topinka, who died this month, shortly after being re-elected. But the Attorney General also advocates that the legislature change the law, to provide that the gubernatorial appointment only be good until the November 2016 election. Comptroller is a four-year office, so if the law is not changed, the person appointed soon will serve the entire four years even though that person had not been elected. See this story.