Illinois holds a special election to fill the vacant 5th U.S. House seat on April 7. The Board says any independent candidate, or any nominee of an unqualified party, must submit 12,586 valid signatures no later than January 27.

The seat is empty because the person elected in November 2008, Rahm Emanuel, has resigned his seat to become Chief of Staff to President-Elect Barack Obama.

The state is requiring these signatures to be collected in just 21 days. Federal courts in Florida, Georgia, Maryland and Wyoming have ruled that when the normal petitioning period is sharply curtailed, states must reduce the required number of signatures. As far as is known, no one has ever sued over this point in Illinois.

On January 5, the Minnesota Secretary of State posted new totals for Al Franken and Norm Coleman for U.S. Senate. No new totals were calculated for the other candidates.

Compared to the original tally, Al Franken gained 1,056 votes, and Norm Coleman gained 616. These new votes were sufficient to reverse the outcome. Whereas Norm Coleman had won by 215 votes in the original tally, the new numbers have Al Franken winning by 225 votes. Coleman does not accept the results and is contesting the recount results.

The 2008 controversy over Florida’s January date for presidential primaries is still active in two distinct federal constitutional lawsuits.

Ausman v Browning attacks the Florida state law, setting the primary at a date that violates national Democratic Party rules. The lawsuit argues that the state is depriving both Democrats and Republicans from having a voice in their own party’s national conventions, by setting the primary date so early. It is pending in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee (Ausman v Browning, 4:07-cv-519). It had a status conference on December 19, 2008.

Another case, DiMaio v Democratic National Committee, has a hearing on January 8 in the 11th circuit. This case attacks the Democratic Party’s national rule, saying that South Carolina and New Hampshire are permitted to have presidential primaries that count, in January; whereas other states may not. Because the Democratic Party has already said publicly that South Carolina was permitted to have an early presidential primary because the party wanted a state with a large African American population to go second (after New Hampshire), the lawsuit argues that the party’s rules are being determined by racial considerations, and that parties may not do this. The case depends on decision from the U.S. Supreme Court from the 1940’s that outlawed party rules that discriminated against African Americans. See this article about the DiMaio case. Thanks to Ed Still for the link.