On April 20, the California Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB 660, which makes it illegal for initiative proponents to pay circulators on a per-signature basis. Now it goes to the State Senate.
Each of the three last Governors of California vetoed bills like this bill.
On April 21, the Illinois Supreme Court issued an opinion in Elam v Municipal Officers Electoral Board for Village of Riverdale, 2021-IL-127080. It said that the election law does not permit anyone to circulate for a primary candidate and then later circulate for an independent candidate, in the same year, even if the offices were different. Here is the eleven page opinion.
On page ten, the opinion says, “Circulators are the cadre of any political movement. A party needs a cadre to exist. Once a circulator acts on a party’s behalf to solicit signatures, he remains the party’s agent (if he is active at all) for the electoral season. This helps political parties to act as entities selecting and offering candidates to the voters.” The decision also says in the next paragraph that it cause voter confusion if a circulator circulated both types of petition. These paragraphs seem absurd. A circulator may be a professional and it seems odd for the government to care about his or her motives. No one would propose a law that a campaign consultant couldn’t work on a primary campaign and then another campaign for an independent candidate in the same year.
On April 14, the Mississippi Supreme Court heard arguments in a case filed by a voter, who argues that the entire statewide initiative process is invalid. It was passed in 1992 when Mississippi had five U.S. House districts. Unfortunately, the law said initiatives need signatures from all five districts. But Mississippi lost a U.S. House seat after the 2000 census, and the law has never been repaired. See this story.
Germany has a parliamentary election on September 26. One poll shows that the Green Party is now the party with the most popular support. See this story.
After further review of the petition for the Legal Marijuana Now Party, the Nebraska Secretary of State says it has enough valid signatures and will be on the 2022 ballot. Initially the party was told that it was short in one of the three U.S. House districts, but then more signatures were found valid.
UPDATE: here is a news release.
