On February 19, a U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania issued a temporary restraining order against enforcement of a township ordinance. The ordinance makes it illegal for a homeowner to display a lawn sign saying “Vote for (whomever or whatever)” more than 30 days before any particular election. Rudolph v Township of South Park, 2:08-cv-334, western district. South Park is a suburb of Pittsburgh. Thanks to Tom McLaughlin for the news. The case was brought by the ACLU.
On February 19, the Kentucky Senate passed HB 18 after amending it. The Senate amendment changes the Kentucky primary schedule.
Currently, Kentucky holds its presidential primary, and its primary for all other office, together, in May. The Senate amendments would establish an early February presidential primary, and a primary for all other office in late August.
HB 18 also eliminates the run-off primaries for Governor that have long existed in that state. HB 18, as passed by the House, only concerned abolishing run-off gubernatorial primaries. Now the bill will to to a conference committee to see if the House will accept the amendment to the bill that changes the primary schedule.
The New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, will hear the Independence Party dispute over who its nominee is on Friday, February 22. The election involved is the special election to fill the vacant State Senate seat in the 48th district. That special election is set for Tuesday, February 26.
One county unit of the Independence Party nominated one candidate, but the other county unit of that party in that district nominated another candidate. The lower court had ruled that the State Committee should have made the nomination.
Although there are many disadvantages to old-fashioned mechanical voting machines, they have one advantage; the ballot can be changed almost at the last minute. New York is the only state still using old-fashioned mechanical voting machines. Changing the ballot involves inserting various labels next to the levers. Of course, that does not solve the absentee ballot problem.
Although the U.S. Supreme Court released four opinions on February 20, it did not release any election law opinion. The two cases that are awaiting a decision are Washington State v Washington State Republican Party, and Crawford v Marion County, Indiana. The next date for release of opinions is February 25.
On February 22, the Court will again consider whether to hear Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, but any news about that will not be released until February 25. Citizens United concerns whether the makers of a movie that criticizes Hillary Clinton must reveal the names of people who contributed money toward advertising that movie.
The North Carolina redistricting case, called Bartlett v Strickland, had been on conference earlier this week, but the Court didn’t decide whether to accept it. No new conference date to reconsider that case has been set.
Here is a link to the Washington state presidential primaries, courtesy of the Washington Secretary of State’s office. The Democratic presidential primary is only a beauty contest, but is surprisingly close.
