The 4th circuit has agreed to expedite Miller v Brown. This is the Republican Party’s lawsuit against the Virginia open primary. Last year, the party won the case in U.S. District Court, as applied to offices in which the party is compelled to nominate by primary. The state appealed to the 4th circuit. All the briefs are due in the period February 22-March 15, 2007. Oral argument is likely in April 2007. Thanks to Steve Rankin for this news.
on February 8, the South Dakota House voted against a bill to move the state’s presidential primary from June to February. The bill, HB 1272, had received a tie vote of 35-35 on February 7. The next day it was brought up again, and defeated 29-40.
Rhode Island State Senator Leonidas Raptakis introduced S740 on February 15. It moves the presidential primary from March to February. Thanks to The Green Papers for this news.
The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to hear four particular election law cases at its February 16 conference. The results will not be released to the public until February 20. The 4 cases include three ballot access cases: (1) Pennsylvania petition-checking procedures, filed by Carl Romanelli; (2) Illinois petition-checking procedures for initiatives, filed by the Protect Marriage Initiative organization; (3) New York petition requirements for candidates getting on a primary ballot for Delegate to Judicial Conventions. The 4th case is from Utah and concerns whether a state may require all initiatives on one particular subject to fail unless they receive a “yes” vote of two-thirds.
Arizona State Senator Karen Johnson is the author of SB 1430, which moves the Arizona non-presidential primary from mid-September to early September. The bill has already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. Johnson will try to amend her own bill on the Senate floor to improve the Arizona independent candidate deadline. For president, Arizona has the 2nd earliest independent deadline in the nation. The current Arizona deadline is in early June; only Texas has an earlier deadline.
