Attorneys for Connecticut are trying to persuade a federal court to rule that the state’s discriminatory public funding law is constitutional, and that the court should not even hold a trial to gather evidence. The law, passed in December 2005, provides for public funding for the nominees of parties that polled 10% in the last election. Other nominees cannot get public funding unless they submit petitions of up to 20% of the last vote cast.

The Green Party filed a lawsuit against the law on July 6, 2006. All sides originally assumed their would be a trial. However, now the state argues the law is so obviously constitutional, there is no need for any further evidence. The Brennan Center for Justice has intervened on the side of the state. The ACLU’s brief on behalf of the Green Party, arguing that summary judgment is inappropriate, is due April 27.

The National Popular Vote Plan has finally been introduced in Maine. It is LD 1744. It has five sponsors in the Senate and six sponsors in the House. One of the sponsors is the Maine House Majority Leader, Hannah Pingree.

In the last few months, two new parties qualified for the Oregon ballot, the Working Families Party, and the Independent Party. They each did this with a petition drive.

Like most states that have registration by party, the Oregon voter registration forms list all the qualified parties. Oregon’s Secretary of State initially told the two new parties that it would cost too much money for him to reprint the voter registration forms, and that for the next year, he would continue using up old forms that don’t list the two new parties. But after the Attorney General of Oregon expressed an informal opinion that such behavior might be held unconstitutional, the Secretary of State changed his mind. The new forms will be available everywhere by early July 2007. Thanks to Dan Meek for this news.