On June 28, Americans Elect’s web page posted a new national signature count for its ballot access petitions. The new figure is 1,348,312. The last posting, five days ago, had been 1,262,665. As before, the vast majority of these signatures are from California.
On June 28, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a Republican, deleted funds from the state budget that were intended to help pay for administration of the Republican Party primary. See this story. The Republican Party will now raise the $1,500,000 that the primary costs from private sources.
Late in 2010, Dallas County, Texas, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal in Dallas County v Texas Democratic Party, 10-755. The issue involves the federal Voting Rights Act. The 3-judge U.S. District Court had ruled that Dallas County is required to pre-clear changes in the operation of its vote-counting machines. The Democratic Party had sued over the use of those machines, because the party feels that some voters are tricked into thinking they voted a straight-ticket vote, when actually they hadn’t.
The U.S. Supreme Court has now adjourned for the summer and won’t have a conference until September 26, 2011. However, the Court never disposed of the Dallas appeal. It had been on conference on January 21, March 18, and May 26, but each time the Court didn’t decide whether to hear it or not. In the meantime, the Justice Department has already pre-cleared the matter, so it is odd that the Court still hasn’t disposed of this case.
On the morning of June 28, the Nevada Supreme Court heard arguments in Nevada State Democratic Party v Nevada Republican Party, 58404. Here is a short newspaper article about the argument. This is the case over whether the upcoming special U.S. House election should be handled as a partisan election or a non-partisan election. Nevada has never before had a special election for U.S. House, so there are no precedents in the state. The election law is unclear. UPDATE: this Las Vegas Review-Journal story suggests the Democratic Party is somewhat likely to win the lawsuit. At least one justice, and plausibly two, seem leaning against deeming the election to be partisan.
On June 27, New Hampshire Governor John Lynch vetoed the bill to require voters at the polls to show a government photo-ID. See this story. New Hampshire is the fourth state this year in which a bill of this type has been blocked by a veto. The others are North Carolina, Missouri, and Minnesota.
