On July 30, Kerry Eddy, the Legal Marijuana Now party nominee for U.S. Senate in Nebraska, withdrew from the race. See this story. The law permits the party to substitute a new nominee, and party leaders expect to nominate someone else.
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On July 11, Hawaii state representative Mark Nakashima died. He had been running for re-election and no one had filed to run against him in the August 10 Democratic primary. Nor did anyone to file in any other party’s primary ballot in that district, nor did any independent candidate file.
Hawaii is one of only five states that bans all write-ins in all elections. Because there is no write-in space, when only one candidate files, that candidate cannot be defeated. So, voters in the First State House District effectively have lost their ability to choose their state representative.
Hawaii election law provides that the new Representative will be chosen by the Governor, from a list of three Democrats suggested by the Democratic Party. See this story.
Although an Alaska state trial court recently ruled that the initiative to repeal the top-four system has enough valid signatures to appear on the ballot, opponents of that initiative have persuaded the Alaska Supreme Court to review that decision. See this story.
On July 29, the Maine Secretary of State says the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. petition has enough valid signatures. See here.
On July 28, U.S. District Court Judge Louis Guirola, a Bush Jr. appointee, upheld Mississippi’s law that allows five days for voted absentee ballots to arrive in the elections office. Republican National Committee v Wetzel, s.d., 1:24cv-37. The Libertarian Party of Mississippi had filed a very similar lawsuit, 1:24cv-37, and the two cases had been combined.
The plaintiffs argued that federal law sets the election day and that an “election” is not held until the ballots arrive in the elections office. The judge disagreed. Here is the opinion.