On Sunday, February 14, the New York State Board of Elections posted the results of the November 3, 2020 election, for U.S. House, 22nd district. Here is a link. Claudia Tenney, the nominee of the Republican and Conservative Parties, received 156,098 votes. Anthony Brindisi, the nominee of the Democratic, Working Families, and Independence Parties, received 155.989 votes. Keith Price, the Libertarian, received 6,780.
Texas Representative Kyle Biedermann (R-Fredericksburg) has introduced HB 1359, which would put the question of secession from the United States on the November 2021 ballot. Here is the text. So far the bill has made no headway, although it has been endorsed by the state chair of the Republican Party.
On November 3, 2020, South Dakota voters passed Measure A, an initiative, which legalized both medical marijuana and marijuana. On February 8, a state trial court ruled that the measure is invalid because it involves two separate subjects, marijuana and medical marijuana.
On February 12, the Attorney General said that he will not appeal the decision. The Attorney General had tried to defend the initiative in the trial court because any state’s Attorney General is supposed to defend state laws, whether they were passed by the legislature or by initiative.
Proponents of the measure will carry the appeal forward themselves. They will ask the State Supreme Court to reverse the trial court. See this story from Reason magazine. The Attorney General’s decision not to appeal is not covered in that story, because the Attorney General made his decision after that story was written. Thanks to Eric Garris for the link.
Laws that require initiatives to pertain to only a single subject are inherently arbitrary. Last year in Alaska, the Alaska Supreme Court said that an initiative to impose campaign finance rules, and also to set up a top-four system, does not violate the single subject rule because all parts of the initiative concern election law.
The U.S. Census detailed data that states need to redistrict U.S. House and state legislative seats will not be available until September 2021. The National Conference of State Legislatures has an article about what states can do about that problem. The most interesting idea is that states should postpone their 2022 primaries.
The range of time for congressional primaries varies widely from state to state. Illinois and Texas have their congressional and state office primaries in March of election years, but a few states don’t have them until September of election years.
Ballot access for independent candidates and unqualified parties is better when major party primaries are later. A significant number of states continue to tie the independent petition deadline to the dates of primaries. So the later the primaries, the more time for independent petitions to circulate.
On February 2, the Mississippi House Apportionment and Elections Committee killed HB 1183, which would have let each U.S. House district choose its own presidential elector.
