On April 6, the Delaware Senate passed SB 57, which provides that if a presidential elector does not vote for the nominee of his or her party, that elector is replaced with someone else who will. The bill does not specify whether the reference to a party presidential nominee refers to the national party, or the state party. In the past there have been instances when a state party nominated someone for president who was not the person who won that party’s national convention nomination. For instance, in 1968, the Alabama Democratic Party’s presidential nominee was George Wallace, whereas the national party nominee was Hubert Humphrey.

On March 30, the Georgia Libertarian Party filed this reply brief in Graham v Georgia Attorney General, 22-13396, in the Eleventh Circuit. This is the case that challenges the Georgia campaign finance law that lets individuals give bigger donations to Republican and Democratic nominees for Governor and Lieutenant Governor than they are permitted to give other candidates for those offices.

On April 6, the Erie County Supreme Court struck down a 2021 New York law that forbids voters in primaries from casting a write-in vote for someone who is not a member of that party. The case had been filed by voters from the Conservative Party and the Working Families Party. Kowal v Mohr, 801603/2023.

The ostensible purpose of the 2021 law was to stop “party-raiding”, in which voters who are hostile to a particular party cast insincere votes in that party’s primary, in order to injure that party. But all the available evidence suggested that rarely, if ever, happens. Thanks to Joe Burns for this news. The basis for the decision was the state constitutional protection of the right to vote.