On June 18, Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee signed HB 7090 and SB 2491, identical bills that move the presidential primaries from late April to early March. Rhode Island also had presidential primaries in early March in the years 1996-2008.
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On June 12, Texas Governor Greg Abbott spoke at the Republican Party state convention. He said he supports converting Texas primaries from open to closed. Bills to make such a change have failed to advance in the past several legislative sessions. The Texas Republican Party is also suing to open a closed primary for itself, but the lawsuit is moving extremely slowly.
On June 12, the Eleventh Circuit issued an order in Jackson v Jones, 26-10854. The case concerns Georgia’s campaign finance contribution limits. The law allows incumbent Governors and Lieutenant Governors to accept unlimited campaign contributions, an advantage that other candidates who run against them do not have. The U.S. District Court had enjoined the law, and the Eleventh Circuit agreed. The vote was 2-1. The dissent agreed that the law is unconstitutional, but felt the lawsuit is flawed procedurally because the plaintiff sued his opponent instead of suing the state.
The decision is by Judge Britt Grant, a Trunp appointee, and is supported by Judge Adalberto Jordan, a Clinton appointee. The dissent is by Judge William Pryor, a Bush Jr. appointee.
on June 12, New Jersey Secretary of State Dale Caldwell said he will keep Lana Leguia on the November ballot. She is the Libertarian nominee for U.S. House, 7th district. The Republican Party had challenged her ballot position because she used out-of-state circulators, and the Administrative law Judge had said he would not do a constitutional analysis of the restriction. The restriction has never been repealed even though New Jersey lost a lawsuit on this issue in 2021 in Arsenault v Way.
Since the the New Jersey Republican Party has said it will sue the Secretary of State.
On June 18, U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, issued an order of League of Women Voters of Massachusetts v Trump, 1:26cv-11549. It says that the voting rights groups may proceed to seek an injunction against the Presidential Executive Order that tells the Department of Homeland Security to prepare a list of approved voters. Then, the intent of the Executive Order is to provide that the U.S. Postal Service may not deliver a postal ballot to anyone who is not on the list. An earlier decision had said the case is not ripe, but now it is ripe, as applied to coming elections this year.