Category: State
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Colorado governor appoints Maria Berkenkotter to state supreme court
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) appointed Maria Berkenkotter to the Colorado Supreme Court on November 20, 2020. Berkenkotter will succeed Chief Justice Nathan Coats, who is retiring in January 2021 when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 72. Berkenkotter is Polis’s first nominee to the seven-member supreme court. Under Colorado law, state supreme court…
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Ballotpedia study: population distribution mirrors state supreme court partisanship
Ballotpedia recently published a new study on state supreme courts entitled "Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship". Among the findings, the study revealed trends in the distribution of the population across the country that closely tracked with the breakdown of partisan control over state supreme courts. The correlation between population distribution and court partisanship was closest among…
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Georgia Supreme Court Justice Keith Blackwell retires
On Nov. 18, Georgia Supreme Court Justice Keith Blackwell retired, citing family obligations and a desire to return to private practice. Gov. Nathan Deal (R) appointed Blackwell to the court in June 2012 to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of George H. Carley. Before serving on the supreme court, Blackwell served on the…
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37 states modified absentee/mail-in voting procedures in Nov. 3 elections
The November 3, 2020, general elections included races for president, 35 U.S. Senate seats, 435 U.S. House of Representatives seats, 120 statewide ballot measures, 165 state executive offices, state legislative seats in 86 chambers, and thousands of local offices and ballot measures. All told, 37 states modified their absentee/mail-in voting procedures for the general election.…
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Traveling over Thanksgiving? Here are the states with restrictions on travel
Heading into Thanksgiving, 12 states plus the District of Columbia have active restrictions on travel intended to reduce the spread of coronavirus. Since the pandemic began, 26 states have issued restrictions on travel, and 14 have been rescinded. The states (plus D.C.) with active travel restrictions as of Nov. 23 are: Alaska Connecticut District of…
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Three state legislative special elections to be decided in runoffs
Three state legislative seats up for special election in 2020 are still undecided as of November 20, 2020. All three are headed to runoff elections: Mississippi House of Representatives District 87 on November 24, Georgia State Senate District 39 on December 1, and Texas State Senate District 30 on December 19. Although special state legislative…
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Washington Governor Inslee appoints new chief of staff
Gov. Jay Inslee (D) appointed Jamila Thomas as his chief of staff on Nov. 5. Thomas succeeds former Chief of Staff David Postman, who served from December 2015 to November 2020. According to a press release, Inslee said of Thomas, “Jamila brings a deep understanding of state government. She is a strategic thinker with extensive…
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Election certification and canvassing deadlines for the week beginning Nov. 23
Between Nov. 23 and 27, 13 states and the District of Columbia will observe election certification and/or canvassing deadlines: Nov. 23: Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Utah Nov. 24: District of Columbia, Indiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, and Ohio Nov. 25: Alabama and Alaska Through Nov. 20, election certification and/or canvassing dates have…
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Runoff election in Mississippi House district to be held Nov. 24
A special general runoff election will be held on November 24 for District 87 in the Mississippi House of Representatives. The special general election took place on November 3, with the top two candidates advancing to the runoff. Candidates in Mississippi state legislative special elections run without party labels on the ballot. Matthew Conoly and…
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Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder wins re-election
Incumbent Larry Householder (R) defeated four write-in candidates—Marci McCaulay (D), Jay Conrad (R), Robert Leist (L), and Kaitlyn Clark (I)—in the general election for Ohio's House of Representatives District 72. Householder ran unopposed in the April 28 Republican primary. On July 21, 2020, after the filing deadline for additional candidates to appear on the ballot,…