New Mexico Bill for a Top-Four System

Posted on by January 23, 2022
9

New Mexico State Senator Bill Tallman (D-Albuquerque) has introduced SJR 1, a proposed constitutional amendment that would eliminate the ability of parties to have nominees for congress and state office. Like the similar bills in other states, if enacted, it would make it extremely difficult for minor parties to remain ballot-qualified. They would need to perform very well in the presidential race. Here is the text. It is unclear whether it would permit write-ins in the general election.

Senator Tallman is in his second term and is age 81 years.

During 2022, Montana Party Petition Will Not Require Any Distribution Requirement

Posted on by January 22, 2022
8

As already noted, last year the Ninth Circuit struck down the Montana distribution requirement for petitions to create a qualified party. The Montana legislature is not scheduled to meet during calendar year 2022, so there is no likelihood that the legislature can restore the distribution requirement until 2023 at the earliest. Presumably if the legislature restores it, it will require an equal number of signatures from legislative districts, avoiding the constitutional problem.

Therefore, for 2022, the petition to qualify a new party will be easier than it has been since 1969. The petition still needs 5,000 signatures, but signatures can be gathered anywhere in the state. However, the petition deadline is in late February.

Before 1969, Montana allowed any group to be a qualified party, simply on request. There was no petition requirement.

Currently, the only ballot-qualified parties in Montana are Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian. The Green Party has a potentially strong case that it should be restored to the ballot without a new petition, because it petitioned in both 2018 and 2020 and both times, the petition was set aside because of the unconstitutional distribution requirement. However, so far, the Montana Green Party hasn’t filed any paperwork in the federal court asking to be restored.

Florida Republican Candidate for School Board Files Brief in Lawsuit Challenging Law Forbidding Candidates to Reveal Party Membership

Posted on by January 22, 2022
3

On January 18, Kells Hetherington filed this brief in his lawsuit against the Florida law that makes it a crime for candidates for non-partisan school boards to reveal their party membership during the campaign. He was fined $500 for saying that he is a “lifelong Republican.” Later the fine was reduced to $200. Hetherington v Madden, n.d., 3:21cv-671.

The Florida law is in section 106.143(3) of the election code. The last sentence is, “A candidate for nonpartisan office is prohibited from campaigning based on party affiliation.”

So far, the government’s defense of the law has been procedural, claiming that Hetherington sued the wrong defendant, and arguing that facts about Florida school boards mentioned in the plaintiff’s brief should be stricken, because the plaintiff cited Ballotpedia, and the government’s brief argues that references to websites like Ballotpedia are just “hearsay”.