On March 5, U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs, an Obama appointee, agreed to expedite the lawsuit Greenville County Republican Party v State of South Carolina, 6:10-cv-1407. This is the lawsuit in which the Republican Party is seeking to prevent non-Republicans from voting in Republican primaries, especially primaries for municipal partisan office. The basis for expediting the case is that some of these partisan municipal elections are being held this year, and candidate filing for these races closes on March 30.

Judge Childs also agreed to let the intervenors participate in the lawsuit. The intervenors were brought together by Independent Voting. However, the intervenors must submit their evidence by March 8. The Republican Party had argued against letting any intervenors into the case, because the party had argued that they would cause the case to be delayed. The intervenors include some Democratic state legislators, and some officials of the Constitution Party, the Independence Party, and the Labor Party. Thanks to Nancy Hanks for this news.

On March 4, the Washington State Senate passed SB 5171, which moves the primary (for office other than President) from late August to early August. The filing deadline moves three weeks earlier, into late April. The bill passed with only one “no” vote.

Washington uses a top-two system. One of the disadvantages of that system is that all avenues to the November ballot are shut off early in the year (except for write-ins). In a traditional system, even if the major parties choose their nominees in the first half of the year, there is usually a method for independent candidates, or new parties, to get on the ballot later. This flexibility is useful if some important and unexpected public event occurs in the middle of the year, to make it possible for voters to support someone entering the race late, in response to that unexpected event.

Earlier this year, Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan) introduced HR 108. All of these points only relate to federal elections. The bill would outlaw vote-counting machines that have no audit trail; it would provide that provisional ballots are not invalid just because they were cast in the wrong precinct; it would require all states to permit election-day registration; and it would require all states to permit early voting, in the period starting 15 days before election day. Thanks to Election Administration Reports for this news. So far, the bill has no co-sponsors.