On April 22, Public Policy Polling released this poll for the special election in South Carolina’s first U.S. House district. The overall poll shows these results: Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch 50%, Republican Mark Sanford 41%, Green Eugene Platt 3%, undecided 6%.

Most significant is the question that sorts these responses, depending on how the respondent voted for President in November 2012. Only 1% of the Obama voters intend to vote for Platt. But 5% of the Romney voters intend to do so. See the top of the fourth page. Thanks to Michael for the link.

On April 17, a Cowlitz County Superior Court in Washington state struck down a law that said if a voter signs a petition twice, even though he or she is a registered voter, neither signature should count. See this story. The case is Patella v Kimsey, 13-2-00212-5. Thanks to Paul Jacob for this news.

On April 22, the Constitution and Green Parties of Georgia appealed their presidential ballot access case to the 11th circuit. The case is Green Party of Georgia v State. The lawsuit was filed in 2012 and pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court and the Eleventh Circuit have both ruled that ballot access for President has more protection than ballot access for other office (Georgia is in the 11th circuit). The U.S. District Court had dismissed the case last year before the state had even answered the complaint. The U.S. District Court Judge decision missed the main point of the lawsuit, that the unfavorable Georgia ballot access precedents do not relate to presidential elections.

Georgia is one of only two states in which no petition concerning presidential ballot access has succeeded during the last twelve years. The other such state is Indiana. The U.S. Supreme Court has said in Storer v Brown and Mandel v Bradley that a key indicator that a ballot access lawsuit is unconstitutional is how often it is used successfully.