On January 26, supporters of a top-two initiative in Oklahoma say they submitted “more than 200,000 signatures”. The requirement is 172,993 signatures. See this story.
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On January 27, attorneys for Cornel West (independent presidential candidate in 2024) and the Pennsylvania state elections office jointly asked a U.S. District Court for a two-month extension of the discovery deadline. The filing says that the two sides are engaged in settlement talks.
The issue in the case is the state policy that says each candidate for presidential elector (for petitioning candidates, i.e., independent and minor party tickets) must file a signed and notarized declaration of candidacy. In contrast, presidential elector candidates for fully-qualified parties need not file any paperwork. Instead their parties simply submit a list of their presidential elector candidates.
It is possible the settlement will result in a new policy, one in which the paperwork from each candidate for presidential elector is no longer required. The judge in this case already ruled against the state, when the state had asked that the case be dismissed without any evidence-gathering. West v Pennsylvania Department of State, w.d., 2:24cv-1349.
Bills have been introduced in each house of the Tennessee legislature to bar naturalized citizens from running for congress in a party primary. They are SB 1825 by Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) and HB 2036 by Representative Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville). Here is the text. The two bills are identical.
It is clear that this bill, if enacted into law, would violate the U.S. Supreme Court decision U.S. Term Limits v Thornton, which said that states cannot add to the qualifications for congress that are mentioned in the U.S. Constitution.
Bills have been introduced in each house of the Washington legislature to make it illegal to pay initiative circulators on a per-signature basis. They are SB 5973 by Senator Javier Valdez (D-Seattle) and HB 2260 by Representative Sharlett Mena (D-Tacoma). See this story.
Utah State Senator Michael McKell (R-Spanish Fork) has introduced SB 194. It is an omnibus election law bill, with a provision that changes how vacancies in the legislature are filled. Currently when a legislator does or resigns, that legislator’s party has the right to replace him or her. Recently the Forward Party gained a state legislator in Utah, because a Republican representative had changed his affiliation to show himself a member of the Forward Party. Then, that legislator had resigned, so the Forward Party was permitted to choose his replacement.
Under the bill, the outgoing legislator’s party when he or she left the legislature would not matter. Instead what would matter is the outgoing legislator’s party membership when he or she had last been elected. If this bill had been law earlier this year, the Forward Party could not now have a state legislator.