The Virginia regular session of the 2021 legislature has now adjourned. The bills to have Virginia join the National Popular Vote Compact, SB 1101 and HB 1933, failed to make any headway, even though Democrats have a majority in both houses of the legislature.
On February 12, the Utah House passed HB 75, which makes it easier for cities to use ranked choice voting for their own officers if they want to. The bill provides that when a city decides to use ranked choice voting, the county elections officials in that city’s county must help it. Many cities do not administer their own elections; they depend on the county elections office to do that. The vote was 46-25.
The Ninth Circuit will hear Montana Green Party v Stapleton, 20-35340, on May 6, Wednesday, in Portland, Oregon. This case challenges the unequal distribution requirement for petitions to recognize a new party. The law requires signatures from at least one-third of the state house districts. Montana has 100 state house districts, so signatures must be gathered from at least 34 counties. The problem is that even though the state house districts are approximately equal in population, the law requires widely differing numbers of signatures from the various districts. In some districts as few as 55 signatures are required; in others, 150 signatures. This seems to violate the U.S. Supreme Court decision Moore v Ogilvie, a 1969 case from Illinois that said such laws give more power to the voters of some areas than other areas, and therefore violate the one person, one vote principle.
On February 23, a New York County Supreme Court issued an opinion in Jumaane Williams v Cuomo. This is a lawsuit filed by over 100 New York city primary candidates, seeking to suspend primary petitions for 2021 elections. The primary petitions are due in March 2021. The opinion rejects the case, pointing out that the legislature has already reduced the number of signatures for primary petitions in 2021.
The Kansas Secretary of State has released these statewide active voter registration totals as of February 1, 2021: Republican 871,817; Democratic 508,808; Libertarian 21,297; independent and miscellaneous 537,698.
Percentages are: Republican 44.95%; Democratic 26.23%; Libertarian 1.10%; independent and miscellaneous 27.72%.
Percentages as of October 12, 2020, were: Republican 45.10%; Democratic 26.53%; Libertarian 1.06%; independent and miscellaneous 27.32%.
