On May 27, the Colorado Republican Party filed this brief in Colorado Republican Party v Griswold, 1:23cv-1948. The case involves the party’s desire to prevent independent voters from voting in Republican primaries. The case was filed in 2023 and has been moving slowly.
On May 22, the Kansas Supreme Court declined to expedite United Kansas Party v Schwab, the case over whether the Kansas Constitution permits two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate. The plaintiffs had asked the court to hear the case before it goes through the State Court of Appeals.
Therefore, the court will go next be heard in the State Court of Appeals, where it is case 128,896.
On May 24, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed SB 1027. It says that statewide initiative petitions face a limit of how many signatures may come from any particular county. No more than 11.5% of the last gubernatorial vote inside Oklahoma and Tulsa Counties will count.
Under several Ninth Circuit precedents, the bill would be unconstitutional, but Oklahoma is in the Tenth Circuit. The Tenth Circuit has never had a case on county distribution requirements for initiatives.
The Utah Supreme Court struck down a somewhat similar law in 2002 in Gallivan v Walker, but that is not binding, although it should be influential.
The new law also requires circulators to be registered Oklahoma voters. A past Oklahoma identical provision has already been held unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states can’t require circulators to be registered voters, and the Tenth Circuit ruled that Oklahoma can’t ban out-of-state circulators.
For the fourth time, the U.S. Supreme Court has considered whether to hear Meadors v Erie County Board of Elections, 24-684, and has not yet decided. The Court will consider the case again at its May 30 conference.
On April 15, Oakland, California, held a special election for Mayor, using ranked choice voting. Ten candidates appeared on the ballot. Here are the results.
One of the ten candidates, Eric Simpson, was the candidate of the Socialist Workers Party. He placed seventh.
