On August 25, the Democratic National Committee will consider whether to grant an exemption to the Florida Democratic Party, to let it keep its full slate of delegates even if the Florida presidential primary is held on January 29.

The Florida Republican Party is also at risk of losing half of its delegation to the national Republican Party. The Florida Republican Party meets in Orlando August 11-12 to finalize its delegate plan. On August 6, Florida Republican state chair Jim Greer said “I will fight tooth and nail to make sure Florida gets its full slate of delegates. I intend to take our full slate of delegates to the convention, and I will let the Republican National Committee tell them they can’t be seated.”

The nation’s presidential primary system is still unsettled, with bills pending in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania to alter presidential primary procedures or dates.

U.S. District Court Judge Harold Murphy will hold a trial on August 22 in Common Cause v Billups, 4:05-cv-201, in Rome, Georgia. This is the case over Georgia’s modified law requiring voters at the polls to show a government photo-ID. The case had been filed in 2005. The original law had been invalidated by Judge Murphy. Then the 2006 session of the legislature had modified it somewhat, but not enough to satisfy the plaintiffs. Then the federal case had been put on hold while a similar case worked its way through state court. However, the state case was eliminated when the Georgia Supreme Court said the plaintiffs in the state case lack standing. Therefore, the action moves back to Judge Murphy’s court.

An earlier post on August 6 has links to the briefs of the political parties to the U.S. Supreme Court, in the “top-two” case called Washington State v Washington Republican Party. In the interests of fairness, here are the two briefs on the side of the “top-two” proponents, the state of Washington and the Grange. The state’s brief is here; the Grange brief is here.