The U.S. District Court handling Adams v Carney, 1:20cv-1680, has moved ahead with steps to perhaps settle the case by arbitration. This is the case against the Delaware law that says most judicial appointments can only be given to members of one of the two largest parties.

This case already has been in the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the plaintiff, an independent, lacked standing. He then filed a new case, in which he cured the standing problem. Then the U.S. District Court ruled he has standing. So now, it appears that the state will no longer be defending its law, because the lower federal courts already ruled against the state in the first version of the lawsuit.

It may be that a bill will be introduced in the Delaware legislature in 2023 to change the restriction.

The Pennsylvania legislature has adjourned for the year. HB 1369, which had passed the House State Government Committee and which would have let independent voters vote in partisan primaries, failed to make any further headway.

Arizona has never elected an independent or minor party candidate to any statewide office, to congress, or even to the state legislature. It is one of only two states for which that is true. The only other such state is Hawaii. However, both Arizona and Hawaii elected such candidates to their territorial legislatures in the nineteenth century.

Arizona once had an independent state legislator, Sylvia Laughter, who had been elected as a Democrat but who had switched to independent status in 2003. However, when she ran for re-election as an independent in 2004, she lost to a Democrat.

On December 9, U.S. Senator Krysten Sinema switched from being a Democrat, to being an independent. On December 15 she filed an FEC notice that she intends to run for re-election as an independent in 2024.

She will need approximately 45,000 valid signatures, due in May 2024, to run for re-election as an independent. The formula is 3% of the number of registered voters who are not registered into a qualified party. The number is constantly changing and no one can know the exact requirement until spring 2024.