On January 10, the state of Illinois promised to make certain changes in how it handles overseas absentee ballots, in the upcoming special election to fill the vacant U.S. House seat, 2nd district. The federal government had sued Illinois because the state was not planning to send out overseas absentee primary ballots, nor overseas absentee election ballots, at least 45 days beforehand.

The state will send write-in primary ballots, and after the state knows who is on the primary ballots, the state will notify each overseas voter who had received a ballot as to which candidates are on the primary ballots. Presumably the notification will be by e-mail. Then the voter can cast a write-in vote. The lawsuit is USA v State of Illinois, northern district, 13-cv-189.

Georgia held special legislative elections in four legislative districts on January 8. See here for the unofficial election returns. In two of the elections, Libertarians were on the ballot with their party label. Although only Democrats and Republicans can be on the ballot without a 5% petition in regularly-scheduled legislative elections, in special elections anyone can run with no petition. In special elections, parties don’t have nominees.

In the State Senate special election in the 11th district in southwest Georgia, Libertarian Jeffrey G. Bivins ran against five Republicans. He polled 6.48%, placing fourth.

In the State Senate election, 30th district, Libertarian James M. Camp faced one Republican. Camp polled 12.4%.

Maine State Senator Dick Woodbury (I-Yarmouth) and Representative Janice Cooper (D-Yarmouth) have introduced a bill to use Instant-Runoff Voting for gubernatorial elections. See this detailed story. The bill proposes a change in the State Constitution.