On November 17, the Arizona Supreme Court took jurisdiction in the lawsuit filed by the Chair of the Redistricting Commission, Colleen Mathis, and simultaneously reinstated her. Governor Jan Brewer had removed her, after the commission issued new districts for U.S. House that Republicans felt weren’t favorable to them. The Arizona Redistricting Commission has five members: two Republicans, two Democrats, and one independent. Mathis is the independent member. Here is the 2-page court order. The case is Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission v Brewer, cv-11-0313. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link. Here is a news story, which includes the Governor’s reaction.

On October 26, the California Supreme Court refused to hear Kunde v Seiler, S195849. This is the lawsuit over whether San Diego County election officials were correct when they let the Republican Party include campaign literature in the same envelope in which the government mailed sample ballots in May 2010 to Republican registrants. The election code lets parties include a self-addressed stamped envelope to make it easy for that voter to send a contribution to that party. The State Court of Appeals had ruled on July 13, 2011, that the law inplicitly permits party literature as well. The State Court of Appeals decision will now stand.

The Americans Elect web page says 2,057,241 signatures have collected on ballot access petitions around the nation. Last week’s total had been 2,008,069. Therefore, 49,172 signatures have been collected in the past week. By contrast, 69,604 signatures had been collected in the preceding week.