On December 12, the Ohio Secretary of State completed the official canvass from the November 4, 2014 election. Here is a link to the results. The only states that still haven’t finished now are California and New York.
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According to this article, the Secretaries of State of Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi have indicated that they favor moving their presidential primaries to March 1, 2016.
Under the existing laws in each state, the 2016 presidential primary (and the primary for all other office as well) in Alabama and Mississippi is March 8, and the Arkansas primary is May 24.
Already, Alabama and Arkansas are in court over whether their petition deadlines for either minor parties, or independent candidates, are too early. Since both states key those deadines to the date of their primaries, making the suggested date changes would make the deadlines even more susceptible to court challenge. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
On December 11, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill that funds the government for the next period, and also changes federal campaign finance law to allow bigger donations to political party national committees. However, the larger donation limits only apply to segregated political party funds involving paying for national conventions, lawsuits, and headquarters buildings. See this story.
The bill is likely to pass the Senate as well, because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid supports it, and President Obama has said he will sign it if it reaches him.
On November 4, Republican Judy Baar Topinka was re-elected to another four-year term as Comptroller of Illinois. But she died on December 10, before inauguration day for the newly-elected statewide executive officers. The Illinois Constitution says when one of those officers dies, the Governor may replace the officer; there is no provision for a special election.
There are technically two vacancies to fill: one for the remainder of the current term, which expires in a few weeks; and one for the next four year period. This article discusses the unresolved legal questions.
Topinka, 70, suffered a stroke on December 9. She was one of the most popular politicians in Illinois; see this story about her.
According to this story, a tally of the number of registered voters in Oklahoma as of November 26, 2014, showed 806 more registered Republicans than Democrats. This marks the first time in Oklahoma history that the number of Republican registrants has exceeded the number of Democratic registrants.
The Oklahoma State Elections Board does not normally issue a registration tally more than once a month. The November 1, 2014 tally shows approximately 3,000 more Democrats than Republicans. As of December 11, the Board of Elections’ web page does not include any registration data later than November 1, 2014. Nor has the State Board of Elections issued any press release on this subject since the November 1 tally.