On December 12, Joe Adams, a Borough Councilmember in Penndel Borough, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, said he has changed his voter registration from Republican to Libertarian. His office is partisan and is up in 2023.
Penndel Borough has a population of 2,515.
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 Michigan legislature has adjourned for the year. It did not pass SB 1207, which had passed the State Senate and which would have moved the presidential primary to January.
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.
On December 16, the North Carolina Supreme Court again ruled that partisan gerrymandering is banned by the state constitution, which says elections shall be “free and equal.” Here is the 130-page ruling in Harper v Hall, 2022-NCSC-121. The vote was 4-3, with Democrats in the majority and Republicans in the minority.
The decision says the trial court did not do a good job of redrawing the State Senate districts, but that it did a good job on the U.S. House and state house districts. Thanks to How Appealing for the link.
