It is possible that an order will be released on February 1 in Jones v McGuffage, 12-cv-9997, the Green Party’s ballot access case pending in Chicago. The Green Party is hoping for relief from the law that requires over 15,000 valid signatures by February 4 if the party’s nominee for U.S. House in the special April 2013 election, 2nd district, has a chance to appear on the ballot. Independent candidate Marcus Lewis is also hoping for some relief. Here is the closing brief of the Green Party. Here is the state’s closing brief.

See this story about Iran’s new election law. The law transfers authority for overseeing vote counting to a Central Executive Election Board composed of eleven members. The intent is to make it more likely that the vote count will be accurate and honest.

Current Utah law lets voters join a party on primary day. However, current Utah law says that effective July 1, 2013, that policy ends, and the only voters who can vote in a closed primary after July 1, 2013 will be voters who had joined that party at least a month before the primary.

But on January 28, the House Government Operations Committee passed HB 262, which keeps the current policy in place indefinitely. In other words, assuming the bill passes, the policy that lets voters register into a party on primary day will continue to exist.

Utah has four qualified parties (Constitution, Democratic, Libertarian, and Republican). Each party decides for itself which voters may vote in its primaries. Currently, only the Republican Party requires its primary voters to be members of the party, so the bill only affects Republican primaries. Thanks to Nancy Hanks for this news.