On November 6, New York’s Attorney General asked a U.S. District Court Judge in Albany to rule that the state must hold its non-presidential primary no later than August 18 (the statute says that primary should be in mid-September). But the state also is asking the judge not to choose any particular date earlier than August 18.

The hearing, which has been postponed three times, is now set for December 12. The Assembly, which has a Democratic majority, wants a June primary. The State Senate, which has a Republican majority, wants an August primary. See this story. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp appointed an Elections Advisory Council on January 27, 2011. Sometime during December, the Council expects to release its recommendations for improvements in the Georgia election laws. The final recommendation will probably be to retain the 1% statewide petition requirement, and the 5% district petition requirement. However, the recommendation will be that the percentages be based on the last presidential vote, instead of the number of registered voters.

This would cut the number of signatures for statewide petitions from 51,845 signatures to 39,245, and cut the number of signatures for U.S. House from approximately 20,000, to approximately 15,000. UPDATE: it is always possible the final recommendations will be more favorable. Activists in Georgia are working for a better recommendation.

United Russia, the party that has been ruling Russia for many years, failed to poll as much as 50% of the popular vote in the December 4 Parliamentary elections, according to this and many other news stories.