On September 27, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed some bills that change election law. He did not act on AB 446, which makes it somewhat easier for a new party to qualify. Nor did he act on SB 660, which makes it illegal to pay circulators on a per-signature basis.
The most significant bill he did sign on September 27 provides that in the future, all registered voters will receive a postal ballot in the mail. See the Governor’s press release here.
An initiative petition drive has been launched in Michigan to provide that the state should join the National Popular Vote Plan. See this story. It is backed by the Michigan Democratic Party. So far, the only state that has held a popular vote on the National Popular Vote Plan has been Colorado, where the state joined, and Republicans then launched a referendum to repeal the law. The voters of Colorado voted to keep their state’s membership in the Plan. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
On September 26, Germany held a parliamentary election. Seven parties won at least one seat. See this wikipedia article. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
There are two cases pending in Virginia state trial court, over whether Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe should be on the November 2021 ballot. One of them has a hearing on September 29, Wednesday. See this story.
On September 22, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued an opinion in Mohn v Bucks County Republican Committee, 74 MAP 2020. The issue was whether a county unit of the Republican Party could remove an elected committeemember from his position for disloyalty to the party. Even though that office is elected in the primary, the Court ruled that the party could do that. Here is the 18-page opinion.
