Nine states release guidance on school reopenings in the fall
Nine states—California, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington—released guidance this week on how they plan to reopen schools for the 2020-2021 academic year. Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) signed an executive order on June 9 allowing schools to reopen buildings and athletic facilities effective immediately.
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In March and April 2020, 48 states closed schools to in-person instruction for the remainder of the 2019-2020 academic year. Those states accounted for 99.4% of the 50.6 million public school students in the country. The two states that did not close schools to in-person instruction for the academic year were Montana and Wyoming, which reopened schools on May 7 and May 15, respectively.
Gov. Murphy ends New Jersey’s stay-at-home order
Gov. Phil Murphy (D) announced that he was lifting the state’s stay-at-home order, effective immediately. Murphy first issued the stay-at-home order, which never had a set expiration date, on March 21.
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As of June 12, stay-at-home orders have ended in 37 states. Eighteen of those states have Republican governors, and 19 have Democratic governors. Of the six states with active stay-at-home orders, five have Democratic governors, and one has a Republican governor.
Voters decide state executive, legislative primaries in five states
Georgia, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina, and West Virginia held statewide primaries on June 9. Voters decided 684 seats, including 23 state executive offices, 152 state senate seats, 493 state house districts, 14 state court judgeships, and two special state legislative seats.
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Across the five states, 590 incumbents filed for re-election. Preliminary results indicate that at least 16 incumbents were defeated, all for seats in the state legislature. Some races are still too close to call, and results from Nevada were not yet final as the election was held largely by mail.
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Ballotpedia identified the Democratic and Republican primaries for governor of West Virginia as battlegrounds. Here’s what happened in those races:
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Republican primary: Gov. Jim Justice (R) defeated six challengers in the Republican primary, receiving 63.0% of the vote. Former state Secretary of Commerce H. Woody Thrasher followed with 18.3%.
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Democratic primary: Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango (D) defeated four other candidates to win the Democratic nomination to challenge Justice. Salango had 38.9% of the vote to Stephen Smith’s 33.3%.
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Justice was first elected in 2016 as a Democrat before joining the Republican Party the following year. The last Republican to win election as governor of West Virginia was Cecil Underwood (R) in 1996. Two general election forecasters say Justice is a solid favorite to win and a third says he is likely to win.
St. Paul, Minnesota, school board representative Xiong dies of COVID-19, Utah gubernatorial candidate Huntsman announces positive test result
St. Paul Board of Education at-large representative Marny Xiong died of COVID-19 one month after being hospitalized for the disease. Her family released a statement on June 8 announcing her death.
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Xiong is the second politician at the local level that Ballotpedia has identified to have died as a result of COVID-19. The first was Jersey City Council representative Michael Yun, who died on April 6.
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Also, Utah gubernatorial candidate Jon Huntsman announced that he tested positive for COVID-19 and that he would continue his campaign remotely while under quarantine. Huntsman tweeted after the diagnosis on June 10, “Have been experiencing classic symptoms...like so many others, my goal is to keep my family safe. Though isolated temporarily, we’ve never been more energized in this important race for Governor. The work goes on!”
Florida extends suspension of jury trials through July 17
On June 8, Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canady issued an order extending the suspension of civil and criminal jury trials through July 17. The court initially suspended jury trials on March 13 and subsequently extended that order several times, first through April 17, then through May 29, and again through July 2.
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On May 22, Canady authorized the creation of a remote jury trial pilot program to evaluate the feasibility of conducting jury trials remotely for civil cases. Florida’s Workgroup on the Continuity of Court Operations and Proceedings During and After COVID-19 will develop requirements and select up to five judicial circuits to participate in the remote jury trial program. Those participating judicial circuits must report their results, findings, and recommendations to the chief justice by October 2.
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On May 14, the New Jersey Judiciary announced the creation of a virtual grand jury pilot program. The pilot program will determine whether similar remote grand juries will expand to other county and state proceedings.
Virginia Supreme Court suspends evictions and foreclosures through June 28
On June 8, Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald Lemons issued a statewide order pausing evictions and foreclosures through June 28. The order follows a letter from Gov. Ralph Northam (D) to Lemons requesting that the court suspend eviction proceedings due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a measure on June 9 permanently prohibiting landlords from evicting tenants for failure to pay rent. The law only applies to payments missed while the city is actively under the state of emergency Mayor London Breed declared in February.
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On June 9, Baltimore County in Maryland announced it was launching a new eviction prevention program using $1 million in federal and state emergency assistance funds. The program will help pay the overdue rent for tenants facing eviction after Maryland’s temporary statewide ban on evictions and foreclosures ended.
More states permit negative coronavirus test result in lieu of quarantine for out-of-state travelers
Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) announced that effective July 1, out-of-state travelers can avoid the state’s 14-day quarantine requirement by taking a coronavirus test no later than 72 hours prior to entering the state. Travelers who test negative do not have to isolate.
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Travelers will need to sign a Certificate of Compliance at all lodging establishments, including overnight camps, indicating that they have either received a negative test result or will be isolating for 14 days.
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Travelers who test positive will need to self-quarantine. Mills also announced that effective immediately, travelers from Vermont and New Hampshire were no longer required to quarantine for 14 days. She said this is because the number of active COVID-19 cases in those states was similar to Maine’s when adjusted for population.
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On June 6, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) implemented a new public health mandate that allows out-of-state travelers to avoid the statewide 14-day quarantine requirement if they can provide screeners in the airport with a recent negative COVID-19 test result. Travelers who do not get tested before entering Alaska will need to take a test upon arrival and quarantine until the results are available.
Candidate filing for state executive and legislative offices ends in Connecticut, Florida, New Hampshire
The filing deadline to run for state executive and legislative offices passed in Connecticut on June 11 and in Florida and New Hampshire on June 12.
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Candidates filed for the following state executive and legislative offices:
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Connecticut: State Senate (36 seats) and State House (151 seats)
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Florida: State Senate (20 seats) and State House (120 seats)
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New Hampshire: Governor, Executive Council (5 seats), State Senate (24 seats), and State House (400 seats)
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The general election in each state is scheduled for November 3, 2020. The primary in Connecticut is scheduled for August 11, in Florida for August 18, and in New Hampshire for September 8.
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Florida’s filing deadline for congressional and certain judicial offices passed on April 24. The next statewide filing deadline is on June 24 in Rhode Island.
Ballot Measures Update
Ninety statewide measures in 32 states have been certified for the 2020 ballot so far.
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Twenty-four of the certified measures are citizen-initiated measures. Sixty-five are legislative referrals. One is an automatic constitutional revision commission question.
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One new measure—an initiative in Colorado to ban abortions after a fetus reaches 22-weeks gestational age—was certified for the November ballot last week.
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Four statewide measures have been on the ballot so far this year. Four more are on the ballot over the summer, and the remaining 82 are on the November ballot.
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Proponents of eight additional ballot initiatives in California, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington submitted signatures, which are pending verification by state officials.
Special Elections
Forty-seven state legislative special elections have been scheduled in 24 states so far this year, with 27 seats having taken place already. Heading into those races, Democrats had previously controlled 10 of the seats, while Republicans previously controlled 16. One seat flipped from Democratic control to Republican control, and four seats flipped from Republican control to Democratic control.
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In special elections between 2011 and 2019, one party (either Republicans or Democrats) saw an average net gain of four seats nationally each year.
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An average of 56 seats were filled through special elections in each of the past five even years (2010: 30, 2012: 46, 2014: 40, 2016: 66, 2018:
99).
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An average of 88 seats were filled through special elections in each of the past five odd years (2011: 95, 2013: 84, 2015: 88, 2017: 98, 2019:
77).
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Upcoming special elections include:
States in session
Seventeen states—California, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Vermont—are in regular session.
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