On November 29, the Illinois legislature went home for the year, without having passed HB 1685, the National Popular Vote Plan for presidential elections. It is possible the Governor will recall the legislature in December, however. The state has much pressing legislative business unresolved.

As of November 30, the North Carolina Libertarian Party has 86,400 signatures on its petition to be on the 2008 ballot. The legal requirement is 69,734. Libertarians estimate they need 95,000 raw signatures. The validity rate has been running at 73%, which is fairly good. This petition has been underway for over two years. Fortunately North Carolina lets a group takes as long as 3.5 years to get the job done. In the meantime, the lawsuit in state court against the petition requirement is still pending.

On November 26, North Carolina asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Bartlett v Strickland, no. 07-689. On August 24, 2007, the North Carolina Supreme Court had struck down the 2003 legislative districting plan, in regard to State House district 18. The Attorney General hopes to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court that the State Supreme Court was wrong, and that the 2003 districts should be upheld. Here is the state’s cert petition.

The issue involves a possible conflict between the North Carolina Constitution, which requires that counties not be divided unnecessarily, and section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act, which protects racial and ethnic minorities when districts lines are drawn. The 2003 districting plan drew House district 18 from part of Pender County and part of New Hanover County, to enable African-Americans to elect a state representative. African-Americans have been able to elect a state representative in the 18th district. However, the State Supreme Court had said that the legislature should not have drawn district 18, because it violates the State Constitution (about keeping counties undivided, to the extent possible). Furthermore, the State Supreme Court had said that the federal Voting Rights Act does not apply to district 18, since it is still less than 50% African-American.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court has had many cases involving the Voting Rights Act, it has never decided if section 2 of that Act applies when the district drawn to protect racial minorities is still barely majority-white.

Meanwhile, a new federal lawsuit was filed recently, charging that if the State Supreme Court was right, many North Carolina legislative districts violate the State Constitution. Also that new lawsuit charges that since the State Supreme Court had held district 18 to be unconstitutional, it should have ordered new legislative district boundaries immediately, instead of saying the matter could wait until 2010.

The U.S. Supreme Court is already pondering two election law cases (from New York and Washington state), and has agreed to hear two other election law cases (concerning Indiana’s government photo-ID law, and the power of the Alabama Governor to fill vacancies on county commissions).

Pennsylvania Representative Kerry Benninghoff has been seriously considering introducing a bill to let candidates get on ballots by paying a filing fee, instead of submitting a mandatory petition. The Pennsylvania legislature is still in session and will keep working during the first part of December 2007. Benninghoff is a Republican from Bellefonte and has served in the House since 1996.

On November 29, the Utah state elections office finished checking the Libertarian Party’s petition, and told the party that the petition needs 540 more valid signatures. The party is free to get more signatures, as long as it gets the job done by February 15, the deadline for a Utah petition to recognize a new party.

On November 26, the Virginia State Board of Elections approved the Republican Party’s request that no one be permitted to vote in the February 12, 2008 Republican presidential primary, unless the voter signs an oath. It reads, “I, the undersigned, pledge that I intend to support the nominee of the Republican Party for President.”

In the past, some other Southern states have had such pledges for primary voters, but they had all been abandoned. The Democratic Party of Virginia will not require any pledge for its presidential primary, also being held on February 12.

Virginia never had presidential primaries until 1988, and has never had such an oath for any presidential primary. The U.S. Supreme Court approved a somewhat similar oath for candidates in 1952 in Ray v Blair, 343 US 214. That case was from Alabama.

The Republican request seems unpopular, from the commentary. Also, it seems unlikely that many Democrats would be voting in the Virginia Republican primary, since Democrats have their primary the same day.

On November 28, a U.S. District Court Judge in Idaho dismissed the lawsuit filed earlier this year by 72 Republican Party legislators, party officers and activists, asking for a closed primary. The judge noted that the Idaho Republican Party itself had not filed the lawsuit. He said the people who did file the lawsuit don’t have standing to act for the party. Beck v Ysursa, 07-299. The decision is 15 pages and can be read here.

The people who filed the lawsuit will not appeal. Instead, they will try to persuade the 2008 session of the legislature to pass a bill, letting parties close their own primaries to party membes. However, Ben Ysursa, Secretary of State, says he will fight the bill if it tries to take effect in time for the May 2008 primary. He says there isn’t enough time to make the change.

Thanks to Steve Rankin for the link to the decision.

John Fund, editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal, has a short essay on the possibility that Ron Paul will run for president in the general election as the Libertarian nominee, should Paul fail to win the Republican nomination. See it here.

On November 26, U.S. Senator Barack Obama issued a press release on voting rights. It says, “Voting is our most basic right and one of our most important responsibilities as Americans. Any law that creates discriminatory barriers to the exercise of this fundamental right should be immediately revoked.”

The purpose of the press release is to publicize the pending U.S. Supreme Court hearing in Indiana Democratic Party v Rokita, also known as Crawford v Marion County Election Board. The hearing is January 9, 2008. The issue is Indiana’s law requiring voters at the polls to show government photo-ID. Senator Obama and 40 members of the U.S. House are listed as “in support” of the amicus curiae brief filed by Congressman Keith Ellison in that case. The Ellison brief can be read here. That brief is one of 23 amici curiae briefs in opposition to the Indiana law. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.

On November 28, the Pennsylvania Green Party candidate for U.S. Senator in 2006, Carl Romanelli, asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for reargument in the case over whether he must pay over $80,000 plus interest for the costs of removing him from the 2006 ballot. The petition for reargument focuses not only on the federal precedents that the Pennsylvania Court failed to consider, but also on the ambiguities in that court’s November 20 opinion.