See this story, which says that on February 3, a U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the city of Boerne, Texas, may revert to district elections for city council. For a while, some time ago, Boerne was under court order to use cumulative voting, in which council candidates run at-large and voters have three votes and may distribute them any way they wish, including casting all three votes for a single candidate. The voter who filed the lawsuit says he will appeal again.
At 2:28 a.m. on February 4, an Indiana criminal jury convicted Secretary of State Charlie White of registering and voting at an address which wasn’t his real residence. See this story. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link. The judge will decide whether White is now convicted of felonies or misdemeanors.
The New Mexico Secretary of State’s office says the Americans Elect petition is valid. The state requires 3,009 signatures. Americans Elect is the first group to submit a successful petition for party recognition in New Mexico since 2010.
Parties that were already ballot-qualified in New Mexico for 2012, besides the Democrats and Republicans, are the Libertarian Party (which petitioned in 2010) and the Independent Party (which met the vote test in 2008). In New Mexico, when a party either petitions or meets the vote test, then it is ballot-qualified for the next two elections.
Rick Santorum’s petition for ballot access in the Indiana presidential primary has been ruled insufficient. He had the needed 4,500 signatures statewide, but Indiana also requires 500 in each U.S. House district, and in one district he was 24 signatures short. He says he will fight the decision and that many signatures were invalidated improperly. See this story.
On January 31, the Nebraska Senate Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee amended LB 759. The original bill repeals the residency requirement for petition circulators, but also required circulators to wear a badge. However, the bill has now been amended to delete the badge requirement.
