On June 8, U.S. District Court Judge W. Allen Pepper, a Clinton appointee, ruled in favor of the Mississippi Democratic Party. The issue was whether Mississippi’s open primary is unconstitutional as applied to a political party that doesn’t want non-members voting in its primary. The case is Mississippi State Democratic Party v Barbour, 4:06-cv-29. Thanks to Steve Rankin for this news. This is the first time a court has ever ruled a standard open primary to be unconstitutional if a party objects to it.

The judge said he would give the legislature until April 2008 to craft a new election law that complies with the court ruling. He suggested the possibility that the legislature might set up registration by party, but said that is up to the legislature.

Mason-Dixon Polling & Research released results of a New Hampshire presidential primary poll on June 8. The poll was conducted by telephone June 4-7. It includes 361 Republican and Independent voters who said they would likely vote in the Republican primary, and has these results: Mitt Romney 27%, John McCain 16%, Rudy Giuliani 15%, Fred Thompson 12%, Mike Huckabee 5%, Sam Brownback 1%, Duncan Hunter 1%, and under 1% for Ron Paul, Jim Gilmore, Tommy Thompson, and Tom Tancredo. Undecided was 22%. Although the pollster did not ask about Newt Gingrich, 1% of the respondents named him anyway.

The poll also included 411 Democratic and independent voters who said they would likely vote in the Democratic primary. Results were: Hillary Clinton 26%, Barack Obama 21%, John Edwards 18%, Bill Richardson 9%, Joe Biden 6%, Chris Dodd 1%, Mike Gravel 1%. Dennis Kucinich was under 1%. Undecided was 16%. Although Gore was not named by the pollster, 2% of the respondents mentioned him anyway.

The Alabama legislature adjourned for the year on June 7. The only election bill of interest that passed was one moving the presidential primary (but not the primary for other office) from June to February.

Bills to provide for a declaration of write-in candidacy, to apportion electoral votes in proportion to the popular vote, to pass the National Popular Vote Compact, all failed to pass.

The legislature got bad publicity on its last day, when a Republican State Senator punched a Democratic State Senator in the face, on the Senate floor.