On June 30, the California Libertarian Party endorsed ACA 16, the bill that would eliminate the top-two primary and restore the semi-closed primary that was in effect 2002-2010.
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On June 30, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Moore v Harper, 21-1271, a North Carolina election law case. The North Carolina Supreme Court had invalidated the legislature’s redistricting plan earlier this year, ruling that the State Constitution forbids partisan gerrymandering and ordering new U.S. House district boundaries. The Republicans in the legislature hope to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court that Article One of the U.S. Constitution forbids state courts from evaluating election laws that affect congressional elections. Article One says, “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.”
The U.S. Supreme Court already ruled in an Arizona case that “legislature” means all elements of state government that exercise legislative power. But North Carolina legislative leaders hope to reverse that decision and get a ruling that would leave state courts, and independent rediswtricting commissions, out of the process.
On June 30, the North Carolina State Board of Elections refused to certify the Green Party petition, even though the county boards already examined the petition and found it had 16,000 valid signatures. The requirement is 13,865. The Board has three Democratic members and two Republican members. The vote was 3-2. The Board also said it intends to have its personnel telephone everyone who signed the petition to ask if the signer really signed the petition.
The majority of the Board also said it wants to ban paying the practice of paying petitioners, despite the fact that in 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that states cannot do that. That case was Meyer v Grant. Thanks to Kevin Hayes for this news.
Ballotpedia has released a feature that enables anyone to search for election law bills in state legislature. The feature lets users search by state, or by topic. It shows the status of each bill, and Ballotpedia says this will be updated daily. Go to https://legislation.ballotpedia.org.
The National Conference of State Legislatures has a similar feature. See it at this link.
A National Public Radio Station has this story about the struggle of the North Carolina Green Party to get on the ballot this year.
UPDATE: see this more current news story.