New Mexico Bill That Would Have Forced Write-in Candidates to Submit Difficult Petitions Fails to Pass

Posted on by February 17, 2022
Reply

The New Mexico legislative session ended in the middle of the night, February 16-17. The omnibus election law bill that included a provision forcing declared write-in candidates to submit a petition of 1% of the last vote cast failed to pass, due to a filibuster conducted to stop the bill.

See this story. The motivation for the filibuster was not apparently related to the write-in restriction, but to something else in bill.

The bill was originally SB 6, but its contents had been transferred into SB 144. Although the latter bill had passed both houses of the legislature, the House had amended the bill so it needed to pass the Senate again, but it did not.

Libertarian Party and Green Party Will Both Attempt to Petition for New York Governor This Year

Posted on by February 17, 2022
12

The New York Libertarian Party will attempt to collect 45,000 signatures for its gubernatorial nominee, Larry Sharpe, this year. The New York Green Party will attempt to collect 45,000 signatures for its gubernatorial nominee, Howie Hawkins, this year. Both parties are in court fighting that new petition requirement; the case is pending in the Second Circuit.

The petitioning period is only six weeks, and starts in early April. New York is the only state that bans out-of-state circulators for general election candidate petitions. It is possible one or both campaigns might challenge that restriction. It was struck down on May 18, 2018, but then when the state appealed, the Second Circuit said the case is moot because the plaintiff Libertarian Party in November 2018 had become ballot-qualified and didn’t need to petition any more. That case was Free Libertarian Party v Spano, e.d.

Some Pennsylvania Voters File Federal Lawsuit to Stop State Supreme Court from Drawing U.S. House Districts

Posted on by February 16, 2022
10

Pennsylvania still hasn’t drawn new U.S. House districts. Although the legislature had passed a plan, the Governor had vetoed it. Therefore, the State Supreme Court appears to be getting ready to draw the districts.

On February 11, some Pennsylvania voters filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that it would violate the U.S. Constitution to let the State Supreme Court draw the districts. The Complaint argues that Article One gives state legislatures sole authority to write state election laws governing congressional elections, except that Congress can override state election laws affecting congressional elections. The Complaint also points to a very old federal law that says when a state loses a seat in the U.S. House, and fails to redistrict, all U.S. House members from that state should be elected at-large, until there is a redistricting plan.

The case is Toth v Chapman, m.d., 1:22cv-208. It is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer P. Wilson, a Trump appointee.

Idaho Bill for a More Closed Republican Primary Advances

Posted on by February 16, 2022
1

On February 15, the Idaho House State Affairs Committee passed HB 439. Current law lets independent voters affiliate with the Republican Party on primary day if they wish to vote in that day’s Republican primary. The bill says that independents can no longer do that unless they have joined the Republican Party several months before the primary.

If the bill passes, it would not affect the ability of independents to choose a Democratic Party primary ballot, because the Idaho Democratic Party has long asserted its right to let independents vote in its primary.