The Census Bureau has filed this brief in State of Ohio v Raimondo, s.d., 3:21cv-64. This is the case in which Ohio is suing the Census Bureau for being late with census data that the state says it must have. The Census Bureau says it is impossible to have the data by March 31. Furthermore, it says Ohio can go ahead with redistricting even before the data is available.
The hearing is March 19.
On March 4, the South Dakota legislature passed HJR 5003, which requires constitutional amendments to pass with 60% of the vote.
Stateline, which tracks news about state governments, has this article on the increasing number of state and local governments that are trying Ranked Choice Voting. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On March 11, the Missouri House passed HJR 20. It is a proposed state constitutional amendment. Currently initiatives to amend the state constitution must have signatures of 8% of the last gubernatorial vote, from each of six U.S. House districts. The bill would change that to 10% in all eight U.S. House districts.
The bill also says that after a constitutional amendment gets on the ballot, it can’t pass unless it receives a two-thirds popular vote.
If the legislature passes the bill, then the voters would vote on it in November 2020. Thanks to Ken Bush for this news.
Last month it was reported that the Nebraska Secretary of State had rejected the petition for party status of the Legal Marijuana Now Party, and had refused to allow the party to supplement its petition, even though the deadline for that petition is not until August 2022. However, the Secretary of State has now begun examining the signatures more carefully, and has already found some valid signatures that had earlier been rejected. The Secretary of State and the party are working together to perhaps find another 22 valid signatures.
