The Hill has this story, speculating that Florida Governor Charlie Crist may yet decide to run for the U.S. Senate this year as an independent, instead of as a Republican. The article has an allusion to Senator Specter of Pennsylvania, but that seems off-the-subject, because Specter switched directly from Republican to Democratic, and was never an independent. Thanks to Ken Rudin for the link.
Hawaii will hold a special election on Saturday, May 22, to fill the soon-to-be vacant U.S. House seat, First District. Incumbent Neil Abercrombie will soon resign in order to run for Governor. Hawaii holds primaries and special elections on Saturdays.
See this fascinating brief, filed February 25 in the U.S. Supreme Court in Doe v Reed, 09-559. This is the case over whether states should make public the names and addresses of people who sign petitions.
Even if you normally don’t read briefs, consider reading this one. It is 70 pages. If you prefer to print briefs in order to read them (instead of reading them on a computer screen), and if you only want to read the text itself, you can skip printing the first 13 pages, which are various non-text Tables of Authorities.
The case will be argued in the U.S. Supreme Court on April 28.
On February 25, the Maine Joint Legal & Veterans Affairs defeated LD 1690. It would have provided that after the town clerks had checked initiative and referendum petitions, the Secretary of State would have made an electronic list available to anyone of those names and addresses. The purpose would have been to make it easier for opponents of such referendum and initiative petitions to challenge the validity of the signatures. See this story.
The bill also would have let voters who had signed an initiative or referendum petition remove their names, up until 15 days before the petitions are due. Thanks to Ballot Box News for the link.
The U.S. Supreme Court has set a conference date of March 19 for Simmons v Galvin, 09-920, the case over whether the Voting Rights Act applies to state laws that ban ex-felons or felons from registering to vote. The case is from Massachusetts. Last year, the 1st circuit had ruled 2-1 that the Voting Rights Act was never meant to pertain to that type of state law.
