The Lincoln Party, which exists only in Indiana, has 20,000 signatures to place its candidate for Secretary of State on the ballot. It needs 36,944 valid signatures by June 30, and it will probably succeed in obtaining them.
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Two cases had been pending in the U.S. Supreme Court over whether private individuals and groups can sue under the Voting Rights Act, or whether only the federal government can bring a lawsuit charging a state with violating the Voting Rights Act. On May 18, the U.S. Supreme Court send both of them back to the lower circuit courts, and directed that they be reconsidered. In the lower courts, One of them, from the 5th circuit, had said anyone can sue. The other one, from the 8th circuit, had said only the federal government can sue.
The two cases are Board of Election Commissioners v NAACP, 25-234; and Turtle Mountain Band v Howe, 25-253.
The Hawaii legislature adjourned on May 8, and HB 1716, the bill to ease the definition of a qualified party, failed to pass. It had passed both houses, but the two versions did not agree with each other. The House had appointed a conference committee to come up with a single version of the bill, but the Senate did not appoint a conference committee.
The House version would have said that if a party has been on the ballot for eight years in a row, it continues to be qualified as long as it continues to run candidates. The Senate version would have said that if it has been on the ballot for four years, it continues in existence for the next ten years.
On May 15, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to act in Virginia’s appeal of the State Supreme Court order that struck down the new district boundaries.
On May 14, a U.S. District Court Judge temporarily working in the Virgin Islands issued an injunction against Virgin Island election rules that require Democratic candidates to satisfy Democratic Party rules before being placed on the party’s primary ballot. The primary is August 1. See this story. The case appears to be Democratic Party of the Virgin Islands v Election System of the Virgin Islands, 1:26cv-8.