On February 6, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs signed SB 1425, which moves the non-presidential primary from early August to mid-July. That automatically moves the petition deadline for a new party two weeks earlier, to mid-November of the year before the election.
On February 3, the Mississippi Senate Elections Committee passed SC 518. It would bring back the statewide initiative.
On January 30, the state of Missouri filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Commerce. The lawsuit seeks to obtain an order that when the number of U.S. House seats for each state is determined after the 2030 census, the population figures for each state should not count undocumented aliens. State of Missouri v U.S. Dept. of Commerce, e.d. Missouri, 4:26cv-131.
The case was initially assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Maria A. lanahan, a Trump appointee, but she recused herself, so now it is assigned to Judge John A. Ross, an Obama appointee. The case will probably become a 3-judge U.S. District Court case. It will be interesting to see if the Defendant defends current practices of the Census Bureau. The Bureau has traditionally resisted asking respondents if they are legally admitted, for fear that if the Census were to include such a question, it would be more difficult to persuade people to answer the Census questions.
Last year, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. sued Illinois over some ballot access restrictions, while he was still an independent presidential candidate. His lawsuit, which challenges restrictions on who can circulate petitions, is still alive. The state has argued that it should be dismissed as moot.
On February 5, the attorney for Kennedy asked the U.S. District Court to take note of two recent opinions that came out since the Illinois case was argued. The two cases are the Bost decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that came out on January 14; and the Cornel West ballot access decision from North Carolina, which came out on January 23. See the filing here.
On February 5, two Florida voters filed a lawsuit in the State Supreme Court asking the court to force Governor Ron DeSantis to explain by what authority he proclaimed that “2026 is a year in which the legislature will apportion the State”. The lawsuit acknowledges that the Governor has the right to call the legislature into special session, but that he overstpped his authority when he declared that redistricting will happen.
Also, the lawsuit challenges the decision by the Secretary of State (who is appointed by the Governor) to have already issued a directive putting special ballot access rules into effect. These special ballot access rules apply to all years following a redistricting. They permit petitions in lieu of filing fee to be gathered anywhere in the state, and lower the number. The number for 2026 is only 2,564 signatures.
The case is Pines v DeSantis.
