The Mayor of San Luis, Arizona, has filed a lawsuit to remove a candidate for City Council from the ballot if she cannot demonstrate a good command of English. See this story. Arizona state law requires public officials to be able to speak English, but has no details about how well.
On January 20, the 3 North Carolina state court judges hearing the redistricting lawsuit refused to issue an order postponing the 2012 North Carolina primary from May to July. See this story.
On January 20, the minority voter plaintiffs in the Texas redistricting lawsuit (the one that is in 3-judge court in San Antonio) asked for further discovery in the case. The plaintiffs charge that an important e-mail that is relevant to the case was not properly disclosed earlier. The state charges that it did turn over the e-mail months ago, and that the plaintiffs just didn’t notice it. This case is called Perez v State of Texas.
Also on January 20, the San Antonio court set a status conference in the case for February 1, and said it would issue a set of questions for both sides on January 23. The state then asked the court to reconsider the status conference date, and to make it earlier. The state says if the status conference is not held until February 1, it will be impossible to have new districts in place by that date, and then the April 3 primary will need to be postponed again.
Meanwhile, the other Texas redistricting lawsuit, the one being heard in 3-judge U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., is halfway through the trial of whether the legislature’s plan violates the Voting Rights Act. The trial will resume on February 3. The U.S. District Court in San Antonio probably wishes that it could wait for the conclusion of the trial in Washington. If the Washington, D.C. court finds that the legislature’s plan violates the Voting Rights Act, that will give more freedom to the 3-judge court in San Antonio to draw the districts it believes are best.
On January 20, a Georgia Administrative Law Judge refused to block a subpoena, which has been served on President Obama and which requires him to appear in Georgia for a hearing on whether he is eligible to have his name on the Democratic presidential primary. See this story.
The decision could be appealed, but Obama is also free to withdraw his name from the Georgia Democratic presidential primary. No other person is on the ballot in that primary. Here is the one-page order. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
California, like many other states, prints ballots and other election material in Spanish in certain parts of the state. The California Secretary of State has struggled with how to translate “Americans Elect” into Spanish, and has finally concluded that the name is too generic, and can’t be literally translated. So, “Americans Elect” will be on voter registration cards, and on ballots, as “Partido Americans Elect.”
UPDATE: Americans Elect has told California election officials that it wants its name translated into Spanish, so the Secretary of State is reconsidering.
