Utah Supreme Court Reinstates Nonpartisan Redistricting Process

Posted on by July 11, 2024
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On July 11, the Utah Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in League of Women Voters Utah v Utah State Legislature, 2024 UT 21. It says that the 2018 initiative, passed by voters to impose a nonpartisan redistricting process, is reinstated. Here is the opinion.

In 2020 the legislature had repealed the 2018 initiative, and thus eliminated the nonpartisan redistricting process. But the State Supreme Court interprets the Utah Constitution to say the legislature can’t do that. It is thus a huge win for the initiative process as well as the nonpartisan redistricting process. The opinion says the legislature can alter initiatives that have already passed, but only to facilitate the purpose of that initiative, not to destroy it.

The hearing had been exactly a year ago, so this was a long time coming. As a result the state’s U.S. House boundaries will probably be altered next year. Thanks to Manual Haddad for the news.

Eleventh Circuit Won’t Rehear Georgia Case on At-large Elections for Public Service Commissioner

Posted on by July 10, 2024
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On July 10, the Eleventh Circuit refused to rehear Rose v Raffensperger, the case over whether Georgia’s at-large elections for Public Service Commission violate the federal Voting Rights Act. The vote was 8-3, with one abstention. The three judges who wanted to rehear the case wrote at length, and one of the judges who didn’t want to rehear the case also wrote.

As a result, there will continue to be at-large elections for this partisan office, instead of district elections. If the lawsuit had succeeded, the state would have had five districts, each one electing a commissioner. Here is the decision.

Democratic National Committee Says it Will Nominate with a Virtual Roll-Call Sometime Soon After July 21

Posted on by July 10, 2024
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On July 10, the Democratic National Committee said it still intends to nominate for president and vice president with a virtual roll call, instead of at the physical convention in August. The delegates will meet on July 21 to learn about the procedure, and the roll call will follow shortly afterwards, probably in a day or so. See this story.

Constitution Party Certified for Ballot Access in North Carolina

Posted on by July 9, 2024
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On Tuesday, July 9, the North Carolina Board of Elections certified the Constitution Party for ballot status in North Carolina. The Board still has not ruled as to whether Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Cornel West will be placed on the 2024 North Carolina general election ballot.

The rub is that the CP, Kennedy and West all used the political party petition process to get on the ballot, because North Carolina law (absurdly, in my view) requires only 13,757 signatures for a political party to qualify for the ballot this year, while an independent candidate for President must gather 82,542 signatures. There is a deep history, in NC and a few other states, of independent candidates using the party petition process to qualify for the ballot when the signature requirement is lower for political parties than independent candidates. But, this year there is a controversy with the NC Board of Elections as to whether that signature reducing maneuver is legal.

Here is a story on this matter.

Thanks to Chris Cole for the heads up!