Author: Dave Beaudoin

Welcome to the Wednesday, May 26, Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day: Sign-ups are now open for this year’s Ballotpedia Expeditions! Dunbar concedes to Bronson in Anchorage mayoral race Comparing state response times to FOIA requests Sign-ups are now open for this year’s Ballotpedia Expeditions! As we regularly discuss…

SCOTUS accepts new cases, issues opinions Spring is a busy time for the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS). I thought it would be timely to bring you an update on what’s been happening. Here’s a sampling of recent SCOTUS activity. SCOTUS heard its final oral arguments of the 2020-2021 term on May 4, and since, it…

Checking in on laws governing ballot measures in 2021 Last week, I briefed you on the Mississippi Supreme Court ruling that determined the state’s distribution requirement for ballot initiatives was, in fact, mathematically impossible to meet and has been since 2001 congressional reapportionment when the state lost a seat. Today, let’s look at some changes…

The oldest and newest state supreme courts Each state has at least one supreme court, but those courts were established at different times. I recently saw an analysis one of our staff members wrote on this topic, and I wanted to share it with you today. The Massachusetts Supreme Court, founded in 1692, is 329…

Redistricting review: Sixth Circuit rules Ohio has standing to sue Census Bureau over delayed data  In last week‘s redistricting review, I wrote about a court case in Ohio concerning the Census Bureau’s timeline for releasing redistricting data. This week—on May 18—a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that…

President Biden announces six nominees for federal judgeships  President Joe Biden (D) nominated six individuals to Article III judgeships with lifetime terms on May 12. Three were for positions on the 1st, 2nd, and 10th Courts of Appeal. The other three were for district court judgeships. Biden nominated Gustavo Gelpí to the 1st Circuit to…

Redistricting review – a summary of this week’s map-making news Last week, I briefed you on U.S. House apportionment counts based on the 2020 Census. As a reminder, six states gained seats in the U.S. House, and seven states lost a seat each. Here’s today’s update on redistricting activity.  Ohio On May 12, the U.S.…

Glenn Youngkin wins Virginia Republican Party’s gubernatorial nomination Glenn Youngkin won the Virginia Republican Party’s gubernatorial nomination on May 10 after six rounds of vote-counting using ranked-choice voting. Youngkin defeated six candidates, including business owner Pete Snyder, state Sen. Amanda Chase, and former House Speaker Kirk Cox. After the final round of vote-counting, Youngkin received…

Voters have approved $199.3 billion in bond measures since 2000 Our ballot measures team just finished some really fascinating research on statewide bond measures over the past 20 years. One of their findings was that bond measure approval rates were the highest in Democratic trifectas, rather than Republican trifectas or states with divided governments. Another…