At the April 7 election for Wisconsin local offices, six of the fifteen winners to the Iron County Board of Supervisors were write-in candidates. See this story.
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On Sunday, April 26, the a Virginia trial court in Richmond ruled that the new U.S. House district boundaries passed by the voters go can go into effect. Republican National Committee v Virginia State Board of Elections, CL26-1208.. Here is the opinion.
on April 17, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed HB 67. It lowers the cost of obtaining the list of registered voters from approximately $37,000, to exactly $1,000.
On April 14, Arkansas asked for a rehearing in Get Loud Arkansas v Jester, 24-2810. This is the case in which the Eighth Circuit had struck down the ban on electronic signatures for voter registration applications. The vote was 2-1. Arkansas wants all the full time judges of the Eighth Circuit to rehear the case.
ARIZONA STATE COURT SAYS POLITICAL PARTIES HAVE NO RIGHT TO CHANGE THEIR NAMES
On March 25, an Arizona state trial court ruled that a political party has no right to change its name, unless there is a preexisting state law that gives parties permission to change their names. Arizona Clean Elections Commission v Fontes, Maricopa County Superior Court, cv2025-064149.
As a result, unless an appeal reverses the decision, the Arizona Independent Party must go back to being called the No Labels Party. Last year, the party had held a vote for its registered members, and they voted overwhelmingly to change the name. The Secretary of State then permitted the change, but he was sued by the Clean Elections Commission, the Arizona Democratic Party, and the Arizona Republican Party. They not only argued that a party can’t change its name; they also said that particular name would cause confusion, an issue not in the decision.
The decision says if parties could change their name, they might deliberately do an initial qualifying petition using an appealing name, and then after the petition had been verified, they would change the name to something unappealing and unpopular, such as “Arizona Nazi Party” or “Arizona Anarchists.”
It is probably true that unpopular groups would have trouble qualifying in Arizona. The state requires 34,127 signatures, one of the nation’s highest barriers. It is so high that Arizona is one of only four states in which the Constitution Party has never been able to put its presidential nominee on the ballot.