The U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion on the federal Voting Rights Act on June 22 is already having an impact on Georgia voter registration. Earlier this year, the Georgia legislature passed a bill requiring new registrants to provide proof of citizenship when they register. Under the Voting Rights Act, Georgia cannot implement that new law until the U.S. Justice Department approves it. Georgia had been hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court would invalidate section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act, but that didn’t happen, so now the state must submit the 2009 change. Odds are it will not be approved. Under the federal Voting Rights Act, though, Georgia is free to bring a lawsuit to approve any election law change that the Justice Department won’t approve. Georgia is already thinking about doing that. See this story.

In 2004, the large law firm Reed Smith coordinated the challenge to Ralph Nader’s Pennsylvania petition. In 2008, Tom Corbett, Pennsylvania Attorney General indicted state employees who worked on the petition challenge on state government time, using government computers and registration records (Pennsylvania ballot access challenges must be made by private individuals, not arms of the government).

The Corbett investigation into “bonusgate” is continuing. It is somewhat plausible that the Attorney General has been mulling over including the law firm in his indictment. On June 22, Ralph Nader noticed that some Pennsylvania attorneys who are part of Reed Smith have made $15,900 in campaign contributions to Attorney General Corbett. Nader issued a press release calling on the Attorney General not to accept contributions from Reed Smith, and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette carried the story here.

On June 23, California newspapers reported that Assemblymember Juan Arambula has recently changed his registration from “Democratic” to “Independent.” It is not known exactly when he did this. He cannot run for re-election in 2010 because of term limits. He represents part of Fresno and Tulare Counties. See this story.

California’s last independent state legislator who had been elected as an independent had been San Francisco Senator Quentin Kopp, who had been elected to the Senate as an independent in 1986, 1990 and 1994. Also, Audie Bock (elected to the California legislature as a Green in 1999) had, while in office, re-registered as an independent, although when she ran for re-election as an independent in 2000, she was defeated. Thanks to Bob Richard for this news.