On January 23, the Louisiana Attorney General revealed that he had received a letter from the Voting Rights Section of the U.S. Justice Department, saying that Louisiana’s new semi-closed primary for Congressional Elections does not violate the Voting Rights Act. Therefore, in 2008, Louisiana will hold the same kind of congressional elections that other states do; parties will nominate candidates for Congress. During the years 1978-2006, parties in Louisiana did not nominate candidates for Congress. All individuals seeking to run for congress appeared on the same ballot, and all voters (regardless of registration) voted on that ballot. If someone got 50%, that person was elected; otherwise a run-off was held.

Under the new system, each party decides for itself if independents can vote in its congressional primaries. Louisiana has 5 qualified parties (Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green and Reform), and they all nominate by primary (for congress).

Louisiana elections for state office will continue to be “top-two”, in which parties don’t nominate candidates, and all voters get the same ballot.

On January 12, the Republican National Committee filed an amicus curiae brief in the New York primary ballot access for Delegate to Party Judicial Nominating Conventions. The Republican brief pours scorn on the 2nd circuit’s conclusion that collecting 12,000 valid signatures of party members in only 37 days is a severe burden.

The record shows that the only slates of Delegate candidates who succeed in getting on primary ballots are slates supported by the Democratic and Republican machines. Nevertheless, the Republican brief says the idea that the ballot access burden is severe is “frivolous.” It says the petition requirement is “modest.”
It says the state has a prerogative to set the petition barriers as high as it does.

The U.S. Supreme Court will probably decide whether to take this case in early March.