On April 28, the Missouri Senate Local Government, Elections & Pensions Committee heard testimony on HB2387/2480, the bill to bring back presidential primaries. The bill has already passed the House.
See this story. The Committee did not vote on the bill and it is difficult to predict what will happen when they do vote.
Today, the US Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that Louisiana put too much emphasis on race in drawing a US House districts map that included a second Majority Minority district. The decision has national implications and is thought to further weaken the Voting Rights Act. Here is the Opinion in Louisiana v Callais, 24-109.
Here is a story from CBS News.
Here is an analysis from Rick Hasen, election law professor and founder of the ElectionLawBlog.
As a result of this decision and some other decisions, we now have a national interpretation that it is constitutional for state legislatures to favor one particular party when they draw districts. Yet it is unconstitutional for legislatures to draw districts to enable racial and ethnic minorities to win a number of seats in proportion to their share of the electorate.
On April 28, the Virginia Supreme Court issued a one-sentence ruling in Koski v Republican National Committee, one of the cases over Virginia’s new U.S. House districts. It denies the state’s request for a stay of the lower court ruling. For now, the state can’t certify the election returns from the election earlier this month. See this story.
North Dakota Representative Liz Conmy (D-Fargo) was killed in a plane crash on April 25. She was running for re-election in the June primary. It is too late to remove her name from the ballot, but it is expected that write-in candidates will file in the primary. See this story.
On Tuesday, April 28, Pomona College will host a California gubernatorial debate. All candidates who have been at 1% in the polls and who are on the ballot are invited. See this story. Eight candidates will debate. Butch Ware, the Green candidate, had been at 2% in several polls, but he is not included because he is not on the ballot, even though he will be a declared write-in candidate.
