Nebraska Legislative Committee Hears Bill to Eliminate Letting Each U.S. House District Choose its Own Presidential Elector

Posted on by February 19, 2021
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On February 17, the Nebraska Senate Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee heard SB 76. This is the bill that would change the system for electing presidential electors. Currently Nebraska lets each U.S. House district choose its own presidential elector. The bill would convert Nebraska to a winner-take-all system, now used by 48 other states.

This newspaper story says most witnesses testified against the bill. The only witness mentioned in the story who testified for it was the Republican Party state executive director.

Pennsylvania Legislative Leader Says State May Postpone May 2022 Primaries

Posted on by February 18, 2021
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Pennsylvania State Senator Jake Corman, President pro tempore of the State Senate, says that the state may need to postpone its 2022 primary. Under current law, it is set for May 17, 2022. See this story. The reason is that the census data won’t be delivered to the states until the end of September 2021, and redistricting is a lengthy process that may not be finished by February 2022, when primary petitions are due. Obviously no one can petition before the district boundaries are known.

There are certain states in which it never seems to occur to legislators that petitioning is not necessary. A majority of states have no mandatory primary petitions, but in the minority of states in which petitioning to get on a primary ballot is traditional, no one seems to notice that most states get along without primary petitions.

Virginia Elections Department Settles Lawsuit to Allow Electronic Signatures for Democratic Legislative Candidates

Posted on by February 18, 2021
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On February 11, the lawsuit Adeli v Virginia Department of Elections, Circuit Court, City of Richmond, Virginia, was settled. The agreement allows Democrats seeking a place on the June 2021 primary ballot, who are running for the Virginia legislature, to use electronic signatures. See this story, which has a copy of the consent decree.

This is a separate case from the earlier Goldman case, which cut the number of signatures for all statewide candidates (primary and general) from 10,000 to 2,000. This new Adeli case only applies to Democrats. Efforts are being made to expand the relief to Republicans, independents, and the nominees of unqualified parties.

Conservative Party Has Enough Registrations to be Ballot-Qualified in Delaware

Posted on by February 17, 2021
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For the first time, there are enough people registered in the Conservative Party in Delaware, so that it is ballot-qualified and is free to nominate by convention in 2022, assuming it keeps its registrants. The party, as of February 1, 2021, has 779 registrants. The law requires registration of one-tenth of 1%, which is 759 registrants.

As of October 2020, there were 660 registered Conservatives, so it appears someone has been working to increase the party’s registration. However, there is no website for any Conservative Party of Delaware, and it is possible there is no organization, and the increase in registration is just individual voters choosing to write in “Conservative” on their voter registration forms.

The other qualified minor parties in Delaware are the Independent Party and the Libertarian Party. The Green Party has 752 registrants, up from 719 as of October 2020, so it virtually has enough.