On June 25, Michael Collier, an independent candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Texas, filed this brief in his ballot access case, Collier v Nelson, w.d., 1:26cv-1574. The case challenges the Texas law that says when an independent candidate is running for an office for which a major party runoff primary had been held, the independent candidate has only 30 days to collect 81,030 signatures.
The Election Law Blog has this blog post about a Washington Post story about the Iowa Libertarian Party.
An initiative is currently circulating in Massachusetts for a top-two system. On June 22, the Massachusetts Supreme Court refused to block the initiative from the ballot. Jackson v Attorney General, SJC-13904. Here is the Opinion.
The opinion implies that if the initiative banned write-ins in the general election, it would be unconstitutional. The Court cited its own 1895 decision that said write-ins can never be prohibited. The Court also hinted that if the congressional/state office primary were much earlier in the year, the initiative might be unconstitutional. It quoted from the Ninth Circuit decision that said the Washington state top-two system is constitutional because the primary was in late August, close to the peak of interest in the election. It also quoted the part of that decision that said it would be different if the primary were as early as March.
On June 25, U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, struck down President Trump’s 2026 Executive Order that says the Post Office will not deliver absentee ballots from voters who are not on the federal government’s list. State of California v Trump, District of Massachusetts, 1:26cv-11581. The case had been filed by 22 states as well as the Governor of Pennsylvania. It only pertains to those states. Here is the decision.
It is somewhat confusing that yesterday’s order, on the 2025 Trump order, is also styled State of Califoronia v Trump. The two cases are entirely separate.
An Alaska Superior Court will hear Sullivan v State of Alaska Division of Elections, 3AN-26-07485C1 on Thursday, June 25, at 10 a.m. Alaska time. The state says the judge will need to make a decision by Tuesday, June 30, because primary ballots must be printed in early July.
