According to this story, California will be hard-pressed to finish redistricting in time for the normal June primary. The last time California had a primary later than June was in 1942, when it was in late August. But it is possible the legislature will pass a bill this year, postponing the 2022 primary.
On August 9, the Texas Senate passed SB 13 by a vote of 28-1. The bill provides for a later 2022 primary. The bill does not itself settle when the primary will be, but sets up conditions, that are dependent on when redistricting is finished.
The House currently does not have a quorum. Thanks to Jim Riley for the news about SB 13.
On July 30, U.S. District Court Judge Freda L. Wolfson, a Bush Jr. appointee, upheld a New Jersey law concerning ballot labels in partisan primary elections. Mazo v Way, 3:20cv-8174. Here is the 37-page opinion. New Jersey primary ballots, unlike primary ballots in any other state, let candidates name an individual or an organization that has endorsed the candidate. But the law says if an individual or group is named, it must give permission to the candidate to use its name. The plaintiffs wanted to mention some individuals and groups that had not given permission, but the judge ruled against the candidates.
This case should not be confused with Conforti v Hanlon, another New Jersey case involving primary ballots that is pending before another U.S. District Court Judge. Conforti v Hanlon concerns the structure of the primary ballot, in which some candidates get better treatment than others.
On August 10, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he will resign soon. It is not clear if his resignation will encourage the New York legislature to repeal any part of his 2020 legislation to make ballot access far more difficult. He forced those changes on the legislature by putting them in the budget bill, which the legislature had to pass. They increased the statewide petition for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, from 15,000 signatures to 45,000. They also altered the definition of a qualified party from a group that had polled 50,000 votes for Governor, to a group that had polled 2% of the vote for the top of the ticket in every even-numbered election. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the news about the resignation.
On August 9, eleven Democratic State Senators introduced a bill to repeal the Texas “primary screenout” law. That law prohibits voters from signing a petition for a new party or an independent candidate, if the voter had voted in a primary that year. The bill, SB 58, is sponsored by Sarah Eckhardt, Carol Alvarado, Cesar Blanco, Roland Gutierrez, Juan Hinojosa, Nathan Johnson, Eddie Lucio, Jose Menendez, Beverly Powell, John Whitmire, and Judith Zaffirini. Thanks to Art DiBianca for this news.
