As the 113th Congress elected in 2012 fades into history, one observes that little attention was paid to election law bills.

HR 20, the bill for public funding for candidates for the U.S. House, gathered 160 co-sponsors, but they included only one Republican. Despite this impressive number of co-sponsors, the bill got almost no publicity and never had a hearing.

HR 5334, the bill to establish top-two elections for Congress throughout the United States, got virtually no publicity and no hearing. It was sponsored by John Delaney (D-Maryland) and had only two co-sponsors, Jared Polis (D-Colorado) and Derek Kilmer (D-Washington).

Chicago holds an election for city office, including the three citywide offices, in February 2015. The petition filing deadline is Monday, November 24. Citywide candidates need 12,500 valid signatures. See this story, which explains the difficulty of obtaining these signatures for candidates who are not backed by the Democratic Party organization. The elections are non-partisan but the Democratic Party still has a very large influence in the process.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Reed v Town of Gilbert on January 12, 2015. This is the case challenging restrictions on outdoor signs. Although it is not an election law case, all First Amendment cases inevitably affect election law. The Ninth Circuit had upheld the town’s restrictions on signs, both as to size, and as to how long they may remain up. The case was brought by a church that doesn’t have its own church building and depends on signs to inform the public of where its services are.