1. Looking at the timeline of school closures to in-person instruction by state
2. Previewing the CA-25, WI-07 special congressional elections
3. Two statewide initiative campaigns file lawsuits to collect electronic signatures

Looking at the timeline of school closures to in-person instruction by state

Happy Monday! We hope you had an enjoyable Mother’s Day.

Last week, some schools in Montana opened their doors for in-person instruction for the first time since March. This followed Gov. Steve Bullock’s (D) decision to rescind the statewide school closure May 7 and allow individual districts to decide whether to reopen.

Ballotpedia is regularly tracking government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today we’re reviewing the timeline of when schools closed for in-person instruction.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) became the first governor to close schools to in-person instruction on March 12. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) was the first Republican governor to do so the following day. All 50 states eventually enacted a school closure at the state level, which included both mandatory and optional orders.

Only two states' closures did not begin in March. Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) closed beginning April 1, and Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) closed beginning April 2.

March 16 was the date when the most school closures began. A total of 21 states—11 with Democratic governors and 10 with Republican governors—began closures on that date. Seven states began closures before that high point, and 22 enacted closures after that.

The map below shows statewide school closure dates by state.

Forty-eight states have now closed schools to in-person instruction through the remainder of the school year. Montana’s schools have begun to open locally, and Wyoming’s closure is set to end May 15. The closures affect approximately 50.3 million public school students.

Here are some other notable coronavirus-related updates since Thursday's Brew:

• Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) extended the state's stay-at-home order from May 15 to May 28. She also announced that manufacturing entities could resume operations effective May 11. She also unveiled her phased reopening plan for the state, the "MI Safe Start" plan. 
• Maryland Court of Appeals Chief Justice Mary Ellen Barbera announced that courts in the state could tentatively begin to reopen on June 8. She said that reopening would come in phases and courthouses would require restructuring to incorporate social distancing measures.
• Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) announced 13 counties could move to the yellow phase of the state’s reopening plan beginning May 15.

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Previewing the CA-25, WI-07 special congressional elections

Tomorrow we’ll be covering the fifth and sixth special congressional elections to occur this year. The races take place in California’s 25th District and Wisconsin’s 7th District. Below is a quick preview.

CA-25

Christy Smith (D) and Mike Garcia (R) are facing each other after gaining the top-two spots in the March 3 primary. Smith received 36.1% and Garcia received 25.4%. The special election will fill the vacancy left by Katie Hill (D), who resigned her seat on November 1, 2019, amid allegations of extramarital relationships with staffers. The election will be held entirely by mail.

In the 2018 general election, Hill (D) defeated then-incumbent Steve Knight (R) 54% to 46%. In 2016, Knight defeated Bryan Caforio (D) 53% to 47%. The 2017 Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was even, meaning that in the previous two presidential elections, this district's results were within one percentage point of the national average.

WI-07

Tricia Zunker (D) and Tom Tiffany (R) are competing to fill the vacancy left by former Rep. Sean Duffy (R). Duffy left office in September 2019 in anticipation of the birth of a child with health complications. Gov. Tony Evers (D) announced that the election would still be conducted in-person, with heightened health and safety measures in place.

Zunker, a member of the Wausau School Board and associate justice on the Ho-Chunk Nation Supreme Court, defeated Lawrence Dale in the Democratic primary 89% to 11%. Tiffany, a state senator, defeated Jason Church in the February 18 Republican primary 58% to 43%.

Duffy won his last election in 2018 by a margin of about 22 percentage points. Before Duffy took office in 2011, former Rep. Dave Obey (D) held the seat for 42 years.

Three more special congressional elections are scheduled for this year—one U.S. House seat (NY-27) and two U.S. Senate seats (Arizona and Georgia).

Forty-three special elections to the United States Congress were held during the 113th, 114th, and 115th Congresses. During that time, special elections were called across 26 states—13 for seats vacated by Democrats and 27 for seats vacated by Republicans.

Follow along with us here as results roll in tomorrow!

Two statewide initiative campaigns file lawsuits to collect electronic signatures

Late last week, ballot measure campaigns in Nevada and North Dakota filed lawsuits to collect signatures electronically in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

• Fair Maps Nevada, the campaign sponsoring the Nevada Independent Redistricting Commission Initiative, filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske (R) to allow the campaign to gather signatures electronically and to extend the deadline by at least six weeks. The campaign needs 97,616 valid signatures by June 24, 2020.
  • Plaintiffs argued that state law does not require signatures to be gathered in-person and that this signature-gathering method would be difficult due to the social-distancing precautions in place surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

• North Dakota Voters First, proponents of the North Dakota Top-Four Ranked-Choice Voting, Redistricting, and Election Process Changes Initiative filed a lawsuit alleging that North Dakota's requirement that petitioners physically witness each signature is unrealistic, difficult, and dangerous amid the coronavirus pandemic and seek a ruling that would allow signatures to be gathered electronically online.
  • Plaintiffs argued that the state’s requirement that petitioners physically witness each signature and that each petition be signed by a notary is unrealistic, difficult, and dangerous amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Massachusetts became the first state to allow electronic signatures for initiatives on April 29 after proponents of four initiative sponsor groups filed a joint lawsuit and Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin (D) agreed to a resolution.

Ballot initiative sponsors in Arkansas, Montana, Arizona, Colorado, Ohio, and Oklahoma have also filed lawsuits seeking relief from signature deadlines and requirements due to the coronavirus pandemic.

We’re tracking the changes to ballot measure campaigns, procedures, and policies in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Click the link below to check out our coverage. You can also sign up for our coronavirus daily update email so you never miss a thing.

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