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 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.

Tucson, Arizona, has partisan city elections, and this article explains that in the upcoming primary, the Green Party is the only party with more than one choice on its primary ballot for Mayor. No Republicans appear on the Republican primary ballot, and only one Democrat appears on the Democratic primary ballot. Although the Libertarian Party is a qualified party in Arizona, it is not a qualified party within Tucson because its registration is not at least two-thirds of 1% within Tucson, so there is no Libertarian primary ballot. Thanks to Nancy Hanks for the link.