U.S. House May Vote on Bill to Give D.C. a Voting Member of the U.S. House

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U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has told the press that the U.S. House may vote on the bill to give the District of Columbia a voting member of the House, possibly as early as next week. See this story.

The bills are S.160 and HR 157. The Senate bill passed the Senate last year. It was not brought up in the House last year because an amendment was attached to require the D.C. government to relax its laws on restrictions on guns. Chances are, the political leadership of D.C. has decided to accept the gun amendment.

Utah Federal Court Hears Case on Whether Petition Signatures Should be Public or Private

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Recently, a Utah group that circulated an initiative petition filed a federal lawsuit, to keep the names and addresses of the signers from being made public. This is the same issue that the U.S. Supreme Court will be grappling with on April 28 in Doe v Reed. See this news story about the Utah lawsuit, which had a hearing on April 14 before U.S. District Court Judge Clark Waddoups, a Bush, Jr. appointee.

The case is Utahns for Ethical Government v Barton, 2:10-cv-00333. The plaintiffs went to the trouble of suing and serving all 29 county clerks in Utah. The hearing is at 10:30 a.m. on April 15. Utahns for Ethical Government’s initiative is strongly opposed by the Utah Republican Party, and the lawsuit charges that many people who signed the initiative fear retribution if the list of names and addresses is made public.

Louisiana House Votes to Return Congressional Elections to November/December Pattern

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On April 14, the Louisiana House passed HB 292 by a vote of 72-26. It changes Congressional elections from a semi-closed primary system to a system in which parties don’t have nominees. All candidates would run on a single ballot in November. If anyone polled at least 50%, that person would be elected. Otherwise there would be a run-off in December. Louisiana used this system 1998 through 2006 for Congress. See this story.

Florida Special Election, 19th U.S. House District

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On April 13, Florida held a special election to fill the vacant U.S. House seat, 19th district. The results: Ted Deutch, Democrat, 62%; Ed Lynch, Republican, 36%, Jim McCormick, independent, 3%.

When this district last voted, in November 2008, the results had been: Democratic 66.2%, Republican 27.2%, independent 6.6%. The 19th district includes parts of West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.

Maryland Legislature Adjourns Without Passing Ballot Access Bills

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On April 13, the Maryland legislature adjourned for the year. Neither ballot access bill passed. SB 240, which provided that petition signatures are valid even if the voter didn’t sign exactly as he or she signed the voter registration form, had passed the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee on April 12. But it didn’t advance any further. SB 710, to lower the number of signatures for a new party from 10,000 to 5,000, didn’t make any headway at all.

The legislature did pass HB 496/SB 400, and on April 13, the Governor signed it into law. It says that for redistricting purposes, prisoners should be counted as residents of their homes before they were incarcerated, instead of as residents of the prison. Maryland is the first state in the nation to pass such a law. This type of law reduces the artificial advantage given to areas that have prisons, when the legislature draws U.S. House and state legislative districts.