On August 16, a new lawsuit was filed against Georgia’s law, requiring that voters at the polls show a government Photo-ID in order to vote. Young v Billups, 4:07-cv-163-HLM. Here is the complaint. The plaintiffs, two individuals who do not possess any such ID, and who cannot easily obtain a free state ID because of difficulty in traveling to the government office that furnishes such ID, first attempted to intervene in an older federal lawsuit on the same issue. However, the judge ruled that it was too late for them to intervene. Therefore, they filed their own lawsuit. The original federal lawsuit has a hearing in federal court in Rome, Georgia, on August 22. The original case is Common Cause v Billups, 4:05-cv-201.

The Pirate Party is an international grouping that believes copyright and patent laws are far too restrictive, and that these laws should be reformed. It has participated in electoral politics in Sweden, France, Belgium and Italy. The group is organizing in the United States. On August 9, it said it would attempt to qualify as a party in Utah, which requires 2,000 signatures. The U.S. branch of the party is at www.pirate-party.us.

On August 25, Saturday, the Montana Republican State Central Committee will decide whether to use a February caucus to choose delegates to the national convention, or to use the state’s traditional June presidential primary for that purpose.