Ever since last year, the federal government has been suing New York state over its non-compliance with the 2009 law that requires states to mail overseas absentee ballots at least 45 days before any federal election or any primary for federal office. The case is U.S.A. v State of New York, 10-cv-1214, northern district. On October 31, the state again asked the judge to postpone deciding the case until the state legislature acts to move the September 2012 primary to an earlier month. See this story.

States with mid-September primaries can’t comply with the federal law, so almost all states have now eliminated such late primaries. As the story says, the legislature hasn’t acted yet because the Assembly wants the primary in June and the State Senate wants it in August. This issue has nothing to do with New York’s presidential primary, which has a separate election date, April 24, 2012.

Over the weekend of October 29-30, the Idaho Democratic Party formally decided to continue to permit all registered voters to choose a Democratic Party primary ballot. See this story. The decision was expected. The Idaho Democratic Party have been critical of the Republican Party for having sued the state to obtain a closed Republican primary.

On October 31, the U.S. Supreme Court summarily affirmed the decision of a 3-judge U.S. District Court in the southern district of Mississippi. The 3-judge court had ruled on May 16, 2011, that the 2011 legislative elections may be held using the districts drawn after the 2000 census. The NAACP had argued that because the state now has its 2010 census data, the Constitution requires that the state must redistrict using the 2010 census data in time for the 2011 election. The lower court case is Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP v Barbour, 3:11-cv-00159. In the U.S. Supreme Court, the case was 11-82.

The 3-judge court in Mississippi has retained jurisdiction of this case. The decision makes it clear that the new districts must be drawn in 2012. It is still an open question whether, after the new districts are drawn in 2012, all the state legislators will need to run again in special elections in 2012. Mississippi elects all its state legislators for four-year terms in the odd years preceding presidential election years (including 2011, of course). If no special elections for state legislators are held in 2012, that will mean the old districts, based on the 2000 census, will have been in effect until the 2015 election.