On June 25, U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, struck down President Trump’s 2026 Executive Order that says the Post Office will not deliver absentee ballots from voters who are not on the federal government’s list. State of California v Trump, District of Massachusetts, 1:26cv-11581. The case had been filed by 22 states as well as the Governor of Pennsylvania. It only pertains to those states. Here is the decision.

It is somewhat confusing that yesterday’s order, on the 2025 Trump order, is also styled State of Califoronia v Trump. The two cases are entirely separate.

On June 24, Illinois independent gubernatorial candidate Collin Corbett won his fight to stay on the ballot in Illinois. The challenge to his petition was withdrawn. See this story.

If Corbett had not obtained a place on the ballot, Illinois would have had a Democratic-Republican monopoly for all statewide offices for the first time since 1966.

On June 22, a New Mexico state trial court refused to enjoin the independent petition requirement of 2% of the last gubernatorial vote. Miyagishima v Toulouse Oliver. See this story. The case had been filed by Ken Miyagishima, an independent candidate for Governor.

He presented evidence that no statewide independent petition has ever succeeded in New Mexico, except for three independent presidential petitions. He also pointed out that in 2019, the legislature had lowered the presidential independent petition to one-half of 1%, and even then, no independent presidential candidate qualified in 2020, and only one did in 2024. He will seek declaratory relief, so the case is not over.

New Mexico has the nation’s fourth highest non-presidential statewide independent petition requirement. The only states that are more severe, on a percentage basis, are Alabama, Montana and Wyoming.