The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Level the Playing Field v Federal Election Commission, 20-649, at its March 19 conference. This is the case, filed by the Libertarian and Green Parties, and others, over whether the FEC is failing to enforce federal campaign finance laws against the Commission on Presidential Debates.
The New Hampshire House Election Law Committee holds a working session on March 10, Wednesday. It will consider the bill to improve ballot access for minor parties, HB 570. It will consider the bills to move the September primary to an earlier date, HB 97 and HB 98. And it will consider SB 43, which allows each U.S. House district to elect its own presidential elector. That bill has already passed the Senate.
On March 4, Wyoming HB 160 passed the Corporations, Elections, and Political Subdivisions Committee. It changes the order of candidates on the general election ballot. Current law puts the nominees of the party that carried that county in the last election on the top line. The bill gives every candidate an equal chance to be listed first. It provides for alphabetical order, combined with a lottery every election year to settle the order of the various letters of the alphabet. The bill’s sponsor is Marshall Burt (L-Green River).
The vote was 6-3. The committee has seven Republicans, one Democrat, and one independent. The three “no” votes were cast by Republicans Aaron Clausen, Hans Hunt, and Joe MacGuire.
On February 25, the state of Ohio sued the U.S. Census Bureau over the Bureau’s announcement that states can’t obtain 2020 census data until September 30, 2021. The state says it must have the data sooner than that, in order to draw new boundaries for U.S. House and state legislative districts. State of Ohio v Coggins, s.d., 3:21cv-64. Here is the state’s Complaint.
A hearing will be held before U.S. District Court Judge Thomas M. Rose on March 19, 2021.
On March 1, the Idaho Senate passed SB 1110 by 26-9. It changes the petition requirements for statewide initiatives. Currently they need the signatures of 6% of the last vote cast in eighteen of the state’s thirty-five legislative districts. The bill changes this so that the petition would need 6% in all thirty-five districts.
All seven of the Senate’s Democrats voted “no”. In addition, two Republican Senators, Daniel Johnson and Jim Woodward, voted “no.” The bill appears to violate the Idaho Constitution, which has language protecting the initiative process. It is virtually impossible to qualify any petition when it must have a substantial number of signatures from every unit of the state. If the subject matter of the initiative had vast popular appeal in the overwhelming majority of parts of the state, but it was unpopular in just a small segment of that state, it could not get on the ballot. There is no state that has ever required any type of petition to get a large number of signatures in every legislative district.
