When you vote, I vote, we vote!
Ain’t no party like an election party ’cause an election party LITERALLY NEVER STOPS!
I tried. Let’s discuss elections.
The Big Takeaway
Covering elections can be exhausting, because election season never really stops. (The unhinged introduction makes sense now, right? Aw yeah, I brought it full-circle.) Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and members of the lower legislative chamber in 44 states all serve two-year terms, which effectively means that on any given day in any given state, someone is always running for office.
It’s a lot of election news to keep tabs on in a normal year, but it’s never really a normal year, and 2022 is among the least normal of all the years. We’re still debating the results of a presidential election that concluded more than a year ago. Conspiracy theories about the outcome of that contest (Joe Biden won, not sure if you heard) are informing policy that will dictate the way we hold elections for decades to come — and providing campaign platforms for a host of fringe candidates.
And that’s all happening against the backdrop of redistricting, the once-in-a-decade process where lawmakers redraw congressional and legislative boundaries within their states. Redistricting is always a bit of a mess, but this cycle is the first since a handful of states adopted changes intended to make the process less partisan, and that’s been a tough adjustment for some of our more gerrymander-y lawmakers.
Yeah, that’s an Ohio subtweet. This year was the state’s first stab at using a bipartisan commission to draft legislative maps, an initiative approved by voters in 2015 after decades of laughably obvious partisan gerrymandering. The group’s literal only job is to update state and congressional districts by using historical voting patterns instead of just … drawing whatever lines would favor the majority party; a fairly clear directive that members have woefully failed to obey.
I guess you could argue it’s not for lack of trying, if “trying” amounts to “submitting the plans we like even though they’re clearly unconstitutional.” The Republican-majority commission approved four sets of legislative maps, all of them ruled unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court. The most recent rejection came last week, when the court noted that the (unconstitutional) fourth map was a slight improvement over the (unconstitutional) third map, but still “falls short of landing in constitutional territory.”
The court gave the commission until May 6 to draft an “entirely new” plan. For those keeping track at home, that’s the group’s fifth deadline, which they’ve so far taken about as seriously as they took the first four. As of Wednesday, there’d been no attempt to restart the redistricting process, even as voting continues for the state’s May 3 primary election, the Ohio Capital Journal reported.
The ballot for that election lists congressional races, judicial and municipal candidates and a handful of state offices, including governor, attorney general and secretary of state. It doesn’t contain races for the state legislature or central political committees, which continue to languish in redistricting limbo and thus need to be pushed to a second primary election later this year.
That contest needs to take place by Aug. 2 to avoid infringing on statutory scheduling requirements for the general election, according to the secretary of state. The General Assembly could technically change the statute, but legislative leaders said there’s a general “lack of interest” in doing so, an apt summary for the general vibe of the state’s redistricting efforts thus far.
Primary season is unfolding with a similarly hefty dose of political gamesmanship in Nebraska, where hundreds of ballot-savvy Democrats are switching their party affiliation to vote in the Republican contest. The GOP gained 1,985 voters from March 1 to April 1, while Democrats lost 1,787 members, the Nebraska Examiner reported.
It’s a relatively small voter shift, but it could still prove significant, experts said. In 2014, Gov. Pete Ricketts won a six-way GOP primary by 2,300 votes, the state’s closest gubernatorial contest in nearly a century.
It’s important to note that people change their voter registration for many reasons, and there’s no way to know for sure why party membership is fluctuating at any given time. But a handful of former Democrats interviewed by the Examiner said they registered as Republicans specifically to vote in the primary, which restricts participation to GOP members only.
Most said they did it to add votes for relatively moderate candidates, a rebuke to far-right frontrunners Jim Pillen, an anti-trans regent at the University of Nebraska, and Charles Herbster, who has been accused of sexual misconduct and whose largest campaign donations have come from his own bank accounts.
Voters in Georgia are using a more unconventional method to get a controversial candidate off the ballot: A Reconstruction-era law that prohibits people who have “engaged in insurrection” from holding government office. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene fits that description due to her participation in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to a challenge filed with the Georgia secretary of state’s office.
The law, a rarely invoked provision of the 14th Amendment, was ratified in 1868 in part to prevent representatives who fought for the Confederacy from returning to Congress. Greene, a QAnon Republican who cozies up to white nationalists and is extremely triggered by masks, attempted to dismiss the lawsuit by asking a federal judge to declare the provision (part of the U.S. Constitution) unconstitutional. The judge … did not agree, so the case will proceed in state court on Friday, per the Georgia Recorder.
It probably isn’t going to keep Greene off the ballot. A similar effort led by the same voting group failed to keep noted orgy invitee U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) off the ballot, and a constitutional law professor said it seems unlikely that an obscure provision in the U.S. Constitution would be enough to bar a sitting member of Congress from running for reelection. And frankly, if participating in the Jan. 6 mob was enough to disqualify people from seeking office, the GOP would have a pretty short list of candidates.
But even if the suit succeeds, it likely won’t play out in time to affect this year’s election, except maybe by providing extra motivation for far-right voters to turn up at the ballot box. (Greene has already framed the challenge as an attempt to suppress votes among her supporters, a devious plan cooked up by the “same nasty people in Washington that think they are better than all of you.”) Losing the election is probably a better way to keep her out of office, said Charles Lutin, one of Greene’s Republican challengers.
“In short,” he said, “we the people need to sort this out at the ballot box by rejecting MTG and her ilk.”
Vote early, vote often: Who’s who in the GOP race to be Idaho’s next secretary of state? … The Michigan candidate filing deadline has passed. Here are the 2022 races to watch. … Florida Senate gives DeSantis his congressional map; Blacks would lose two seats… Judge rules the redrawn New Mexico congressional map stays in place — for now … (Wisconsin) Rep. Tim Ramthun, bucking Assembly rules, has been reimbursed for travel to political events … (Louisiana) Disabled people face GOP pushback in bid to study voting access
From the Newsrooms
- Virginia will begin monitoring air pollution around Hampton Roads coal terminals
- Oregon medical providers rely on diminishing number of out-of-state nurses, study finds
- (Kansas) New driving privilege for 15-year-olds opens preferential path to religious activities
- (Tennessee) Murfreesboro mortuary settles suit in corpse “abuse” case
- (New Jersey) Sex-ed curriculum controversy inspires bill intended to increase transparency
One Last Thing
Here’s a very detailed story about the history of 420. Honestly, it’s probably too long to read if you’re celebrating 420, so if that’s you (no judgment), just know that the tale includes a group of high-schoolers who called themselves the “Waldos,” marijuana strains named Panama Red and Acapulco Gold, and backstage hangouts with the Grateful Dead (natch).
This edition of the Evening Wrap published on April 20, 2022. Subscribe here.
