Last week, Nebraska voters who desire to cast a write-in vote for Tom Osborne for Governor this November filed a lawsuit against the state’s “sore loser” law for write-in candidates. Rodgers v Heineman, 33-06-0018.

Tom Osborne lost the Republican primary for Governor last May, but some of his die-hard supporters still want to organize a write-in campaign for him in November (even though Osborne himself says he isn’t interested). Nebraska law requires write-in candidates to file a declaration of write-in candidacy if they want their write-ins counted, and also bars individuals who lost a partisan primary from filing such a write-in declaration.

However, in 1912, the Nebraska Supreme Court said, “The right of the voter to vote at the general election for whom he pleases cannot be limited”, and no subsequent decision of that court has reversed that ruling.

On July 12, U.S. District Court Judge Harold Murphy again ruled that requiring a government-issued photo ID to vote at the polls violates the U.S. Constitution. Common Cause v Billups, 4:05-cv-201. Last year the same judge had thrown out an earlier version of the law. Since then, the legislature had amended the requirement to say that indigents can get a free state ID. However, evidence in the newer case showed that several hundred thousand Georgia adult citizens lack any government photo ID, and the primary is on July 18.

The July 12 ruling is 193 pages long.

A state court had also enjoined the law last week, and the State Supreme Court had refused to lift the injunction. The primary will now be held under the old, old rules, requiring ID but not necessarily a government-photo-ID.

The Texas Republican Party has appealed the case over whether or not it can replace Congressman Tom DeLay on the November ballot. Texas Dem. Party v Benkiser, 06-50812. The 5th circuit is expediting the case, and the briefs are being filed this week and next week.