In Louisiana, qualified political parties with at least 5% of the registration elect committee members at the presidential primary. Louisiana’s next presidential primary is March 24, 2012. Louisiana law expects these major parties to draw their own district boundaries for the election of state committeemembers. The Republican Party is still using districts for these internal party office elections that are based on the 2000 census.

Recently, a member of the Republican Party state committee filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State to freeze the Republican Party committee member elections until the party draws new districts based in the 2010 census. See this story. On November 15, the judge in the case asked the Republican Party to intervene. If the Republican Party does not draw new districts, a fallback is to use the new legislative districts instead.

The 10th circuit will hear Constitution Party of Kansas v Biggs, 11-3152, on January 18, 2012, Wednesday, at 9 a.m. in Denver. This is the case over whether Kansas must let voters register as members of parties that are not ballot-qualified but which are active in elections in that state. The Constitution Party placed its presidential nominee on the ballot in Kansas in 2004 using the independent candidate petition method, and in 2008 by having the ballot-qualified Kansas Reform Party nominate him.

The Ohio Democratic Party to force a referendum on the 2011 omnibus election law bill almost certainly has enough valid signatures. It is very likely that Ohio voters will be voting on the measure on November 6, 2012. See this story. The story has a misleading title. Included in the omnibus election law bill was a provision easing the deadline for a new party to qualify for the ballot from four months before the primary, to three months before the primary. In September 2011, a U.S. District Court judge had ruled that although the new deadline is better than the old one, it is still unconstitutionally early.