Two federal courts in Florida are dealing with lawsuits by Florida Democrats, against the Democratic National Committee, over Florida’s lack of representation at the national convention. DiMaio v Democratic National Committee, which had been filed in August 2007, has a hearing in U.S. District Court, Middle District, on May 28. The plaintiff is a Florida Democratic voter. The case has already been to the 11th circuit, which found a procedural error, so technically this is the new DiMaio case, not the original case. 8:08cv-672T.

The other case was filed May 22 by three delegates to the national convention, State Senator Steve Geller (who is an uncommitted superdelegate), Barbara Effman (who is for Hillary Clinton) and Percy Johnson (who is for Barack Obama). It is Geller v Democratic National Committee, 08-cv-60774, southern district, in Miami.

On May 22, the Republicans in the U.S. Senate, in consultation with President Bush, found a nominee for the 6th and final seat on the Federal Election Commission. He is Matthew S. Petersen, now Republican Chief Counsel to the Senate Rules Committee. This development means that it is quite likely that the FEC will again have its full set of 6 commissioners by early June. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news. Having the FEC functional again is good news for any minor party or independent presidential candidates who hope to receive primary season matching funds this year.

Starting on May 22, North Carolina voters may now register as members of the Libertarian Party, and have those registrations tallied by elections officials. Although most voter registration forms don’t list the Libertarian Party as a choice, the forms all have a blank line, so the word “Libertarian” can be written in.

In most states with registration by party, when a party goes off the ballot, elections officials acknowledge that the party continues to have registered members. North Carolina is different. A few months after the November 2004 election, elections officials forcibly converted all the Libertarians to “independent”, unless those Libertarians chose to become Republicans or Democrats. The party thus lost over 13,000 registrants, and must start again from a baseline of zero. Even voters whose original signed voter registration form still says “Libertarian” must re-register as Libertarians.

The reason voters can now register “Libertarian” and have that tallied is because the state acknowledges that the party’s recent petition drive did succeed in gathering enough signatures. Thanks to Michael Morrison for this news.