On January 25, the Illinois Supreme Court issued a stay of the State Court of Appeals decision yesterday. This means that during the next few days, while the State Supreme Court is deciding the issue, any ballots that are printed must contain Rahm Emanuel’s name. The election is February 22. Thanks to Rick Hasen. UPDATE: the Court also said it will take the case, will not hold any oral arguments, and will decide the case by reading the briefs already filed in the State Court of Appeals. This means a decision is likely from the State Supreme Court very soon, perhaps even by the end of this week.

Last year, U.S. Senator Roland Burris of Illinois desired to run in the special election for U.S. Senate in November 2010 (for the two-month short term), but the 7th circuit ruled before the election that the only candidates who could be listed on the November 2010 ballot for that seat were candidates who were already on the ballot for the regular election for that same seat. Last year, Burris asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put him on the ballot, but the Court refused him injunctive relief. Nevertheless, Burris also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a declaratory ruling. On November 3, 2010, the Court seemed to show interest in his case, and asked the other side to file response briefs.

The response briefs have now been filed. Here is the response of the Illinois Attorney General. Here is the response of the voters who filed the original lawsuit, demanding an early special election for the U.S. Senate seat. This is a 3-cornered fight, in which the voters who filed the original case, Senator Burris, and the state of Illinois, all have their own legal positions and their own ideas of what should have happened. The brief of the voters does not even address the most interesting part of this case, which is whether ballot access in one election can be made literally impossible for any candidate who isn’t running in some other election. The state’s brief does address that, at pages 21-22.

Here is a newspaper commentary by Bronxville, New York Mayor Mary C. Marvin, explaining that even though elections for Village Mayors and Trustees are set for only seven weeks from now (March 15), the village still doesn’t know what vote-counting systems it will be using. The mechanical voting machines still exist but it is illegal to use them. The state also says that it is illegal for the village to use old-fashioned paper ballots, for voters who come to the polls. And if the villages uses the kind of paper ballots that are scanned, the scanners are under the exclusive control of the County Board of Elections and the county may charge the village a great deal of money to borrow them.

A bill is pending in the New York state legislature to let villages uses the mechanical voting machines during 2011, but it is apparently unlikely to pass and be signed into law in time to help with this problem.

Bronxville is a village in Westchester County, and should not be confused with Bronx borough in New York city.