On February 17, the 5th circuit revived the lawsuit LULAC of Texas v Texas Democratic Party, 08-50581. A group of Mexican-American voters had challenged the apportionment of delegates to Texas presidential caucuses, which are awarded on how many votes are cast in each district, rather than population. The Texas Democratic Party adopted that system in 1988 and never cleared it with the Voting Rights Section of the U.S. Justice Department. Texas is a covered state for section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, and even political parties in covered areas must get permission to change their rules. The U.S. District Court had dismissed the case, but the 5th circuit said that such lawsuits require a 3-judge U.S. District Court. Therefore, the case returns to U.S. District Court to be re-done with 3 judges instead of just one. The voters had also sued the state of Texas, but the 5th circuit voted 2-1 that only the Democratic Party is a necessary defendant, and dropped the state from the case.

Several newspapers have stories on February 19 about New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s attempts to woo the Republican Party, and the Independence Party, so that he may get their permission to run in their primaries, in the 2009 Mayoral election. Here is the Village Voice article, which focuses especially on the wooing of leaders of the New York City Independence Party, Fred Newman and Jackie Salit. Thanks to Blair Bobier for the news.

Very early in the morning of February 19, California legislators promised to pass ACA 6, by Assemblymember Charles Calderon. In return, Senator Abel Maldonado promised to vote for the state budget. As a result, ACA 6 will appear on a special election in May 2009.

ACA 6 converts elections for state office so that the election itself will be in June of even-numbered years. All voters will get the same ballot, and that ballot will contain the names of all candidates. The ballot will contain the party membership of each candidate. Based on past experience with the blanket primary, in 85% of all California state elections, one person gets a majority of the vote in such elections. When no one gets 50%, there will be a run-off in November between the top two vote-getters.

It seems likely the voters will vote “Yes”, because popular opinion in California is extremely negative toward state government just now, because of the longstanding dispute over the state budget.

Note that the ACA 6 system is not the same as the “top-two” system used in Washington state. In Washington state, the first round is not an election, because no one can be elected in the first round. In Washington, the first round is merely a ballot access barrier. All elections in Washington are in November.

UPDATE: it turns out that the California legislature has not explicitly promised to pass ACA 6, and the final details are not settled yet. It is possible the deal will involve putting a “top-two” system on the May 2009 ballot instead. FURTHER UPDATE: the New York Times says the measure would go on the ballot in June 2010, not May 2009, which contradicts other news reports. Check back.