On June 24, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, vetoed HB 472. It would have required persons seeking an absentee ballot to include a copy of their photo-ID in their application. See this story, which has a copy of the Governor’s veto message.
On June 25, a brief schedule was set out for Cornel West’s Pennsylvania ballot access case, a case that had been filed in 2024. It concerns Pennsylvania’s discriminatory law on presidential elector candidate filing. Qualified parties merely need to submit a list of their presidential elector candidates; the electors themselves need do nothing. But for other parties and independent candidates, each elector candidate must submit his or her own notarized declaration of candidacy. The case has already survived the state’s motion to dismiss. West v Pennsylvania Department of State, w.d., 2:24cv-1349.
West’s brief is due July 31. The state’s brief is due August 31. Reply briefs will all be submitted by September 28.
On June 25, Michael Collier, an independent candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Texas, filed this brief in his ballot access case, Collier v Nelson, w.d., 1:26cv-1574. The case challenges the Texas law that says when an independent candidate is running for an office for which a major party runoff primary had been held, the independent candidate has only 30 days to collect 81,030 signatures.
The Election Law Blog has this blog post about a Washington Post story about the Iowa Libertarian Party.
An initiative is currently circulating in Massachusetts for a top-two system. On June 22, the Massachusetts Supreme Court refused to block the initiative from the ballot. Jackson v Attorney General, SJC-13904. Here is the Opinion.
The opinion implies that if the initiative banned write-ins in the general election, it would be unconstitutional. The Court cited its own 1895 decision that said write-ins can never be prohibited. The Court also hinted that if the congressional/state office primary were much earlier in the year, the initiative might be unconstitutional. It quoted from the Ninth Circuit decision that said the Washington state top-two system is constitutional because the primary was in late August, close to the peak of interest in the election. It also quoted the part of that decision that said it would be different if the primary were as early as March.
