On February 1, the California Secretary of State released new registration data. The new tally is as of January 22, 2008, the deadline for the February 5 presidential primary.

Comparing the new percentages for each political party to the last tally (the last tally was as of December 7, 2007), all political parties declined, except for the Democratic and American Independent (Constitution) Parties.

The new percentages are: Democratic 42.95%, Republican 33.28%, American Independent 2.09%, Green .81%, Libertarian .51%, Peace & Freedom .36%, Reform .17%, independents and other parties 19.82%

The old percentages were: Democratic 42.66%, Republican 33.55%, American Independent 2.07%, Green .86%, Libertarian .53%, Peace & Freedom .37%, Reform .19%, independents and other parties 19.77%.

The Reform Party is not ballot-qualified, but since it has asked the Secretary of State to tally its registrants, the figures for it are known.

The March 1, 2008 paper edition of Ballot Access News will carry registration data for all the states that have registration by party. This will be the first new data for the whole nation since BAN’s January 1, 2007 issue.

It is possible that the U.S. Supreme Court will have heard and decided six election cases in the period February through June 2008.

1. Washington State v Washington State Republican Party, 06-730, was argued on October 1, 2007, and will likely produce an opinion in February or March.

2. Crawford v Marion County Bd. of Elections (the Indiana photo voter-ID case), 07-21, was argued on January 9, 2008, and will result in an opinion in the next four months.

3. Governor Bob Riley v Kennedy, 07-77, will be argued on March 24, 2008, and will produce an opinion before the Court adjourns in June 2008. This case tests the interplay of the Voting Rights Act Pre-Clearance provision and state court decisions, and originates in an Alabama dispute over whether the Governor had a right to fill a vacancy in a county commission, or whether there should have been a special election.

4. Jack Davis v FEC, 07-320, will be argued on April 22, and will probably produce a decision in June 2008. This case challenges the relaxation of campaign finance contribution limits when one of the candidates contributes at least $350,000 to his or her own campaign.

5. Bartlett v Strickland, 07-689, is a legislative districting case from North Carolina. The Court will decide on February 15 whether to hear the case. The Court seems interested, since on January 15 it asked the other side to respond. The issue is whether the Voting Rights Act can be used to establish districts with a likely African-American winner (for the purpose of assisting African-Americans), even though the district itself is not majority African-American.

6. Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, 07-953, tests whether a movie that seems to criticize a candidate for federal office can advertise itself without having to disclose the names of people who spent money making the movie. The movie in question is “Hillary: The Movie.” The film is intended for showing in movie theaters, just as “Fahrenheit 9/11” was shown in movie theaters during an election year, 2004. The lower court ruled that since the movie’s purpose is to persuade people not to vote for Hillary Clinton, advertising for the movie is controlled by federal campaign finance regulations. The movie’s producers argue that there should be no distinction made between their movie and Fahrenheit 9/11. The US Supreme Court will decide on February 15 whether to hear this case.

The Court is not sitting until February 19 (the Tuesday after President’s Day Holiday), so we won’t know what the court has done on February 15, until February 19.

On January 31, Mayor Bloomberg said not only that he is not a candidate for president, but that he will not become a candidate for president. See this story. Thanks to Thomas Jones.