Bills to establish the National Popular Vote Plan in Mississippi failed to pass by the deadline for bills to pass committee, so the bills cannot pass this year. The bills, SB 2752 and HB 1244, had been introduced by Senator Eric Powell (D-Corinth), and Representatives Daniel Stephen Holland (D-Plantersville), and John D. Mayo (D-Clarksdale).
Michael Peroutka, the Constitution Party’s presidential nominee in 2004, recently was the guest speaker at a Republican Party Club in his home state of Maryland, according to this news story. Peroutka was also the vice-presidential nominee in 2008 of the Montana Constitution Party. The Montana Constitution Party listed Ron Paul for president in the November 2008 election, with Peroutka as the vice-presidential nominee. That ticket received 2.17% of the Montana presidential vote, even though Paul did not desire to be on the Montana ballot and was nominated against his own wishes.
The Montana Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bill, HB 91, which has already passed the House, provides that presidential candidates may withdraw their names from the November ballot. This provision was placed in the bill so that a repeat of what happened in 2008 will not recur.
Two Indiana representatives have introduced HB 1069, to eliminate the straight-ticket device. The authors are both Republicans from Indianapolis. They are Phillip Hinkle and Cindy Noe. Generally, bills to repeal the straight-ticket device are introduced by members of the minority party in the legislature, but in this case the authors are members of the majority party.
Other states with bills to repeal the straight-ticket device this year, so far, are Texas and West Virginia. A straight-ticket device is place on a general election ballot that allows a voter to cast a vote for all nominees of one particular party, without even looking at the ballot to see who is running.
Indiana representative Dan Stevenson (D-Highland) has introduced HB 1139. It would convert Indiana’s open primary into the kind of open primary in which the primary voter need not publicly disclose which party’s primary is being used. Currently, a primary voter may choose any party’s primary ballot, but must make the choice publicly. The bill would give each primary voter the chance to decide, in the privacy of the voting booth, which party’s primary to use.
Illinois representative Bill Mitchell (R-Forsyth) has introduced HB 1402, to require candidates for the legislature to submit, along with their ballot access petition, the results of a “substance abuse test”. The test must have taken place within the 60 days before the petition is submitted. Mitchell is not a neophyte state legislator; he was first elected to the Illinois legislature in 1998.
In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that states cannot require candidates for public office to pass a drug test. That case was Chandler v Miller, 520 U.S. 305.
On February 11, the Utah House Government Operations Committee defeated HB 164, which would have imposed campaign contribution limits for state office. The bill would have imposed a $10,000 limit on contributions to candidates for statewide office, and $5,000 to candidates running for the legislature. According to this story, Utah is one of only six states that has no limits on how much an individual may contribute to a candidate for state office.