On February 21, the U.S. Supreme Court released two opinions, but no election law case. Most observers believe that the Court will release Trump v Anderson before Super Tuesday, March 5.
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On February 15, the Hawaii Senate passed SB 2392. As amended, it says 30 voters may challenge a presidential or vice-presidential candidate on qualifications grounds. The Hawaii Supreme Court would then decide if the challenged candidate is unqualified. The bill also requires presidential electors to abstain from voting for any disqualified candidate. Here is the text.
The vote was 17-5.
On February 20, the Third Circuit heard argument in Pennsylvania State Conference of the NAACP v Secretary, 23-3166. See this story. The issue is whether a returned postal ballot is valid or not if the voter forgot to fill out the question on the outer envelope that asks for the date.
All returned ballots are date-stamped when received, so the information about the date the voter put the ballot in a postal collection box is not actually used for any purpose. The 1964 federal Civil Rights Law has a section that is known as the “materiality” voting law. It says if a voter makes a mistake that is not actually “material” for election administration purposes, the vote should count.
This issue has been in Pennsylvania courts for three years now. The U.S. District Court had ruled in favor of the voter-plaintiffs, but then the Third Circuit had stayed the decision.
On February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to allow the U.S. Justice Foundation to file its amicus curiae brief in Trump v Anderson, 23-719, the Colorado Trump ballot access case. The U.S. Justice Foundation wanted to argue that the matter is a political question, not appropriate for a lawsuit. The amicus was filed beyond the deadline, but the Justice Foundation had asked the Court to waive the deadline. Here is the amicus, which now will not be considered.
On February 16, the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, removed a candidate from the Illinois Democratic primary for a judicial position. Rice v Cook County Officers Electoral Board, 2024-COEL-7.
According to this story, early voting had already started, although no postal ballots had been sent out yet. Votes for the removed candidate, Ashonta Rice, will not be tallied.
The lower court had also ruled against the candidate, but had stayed its own decision.