On April 12, attorneys for the Secretary of State of Maine filed this brief in We the People v Bellows, 21-1149. This is the case over the Maine ban on out-of-state circulators. The Maine law even requires circulators to be registered to vote in the town in which they are circulating the petition. The U.S. District Court had invalidated the restrictions.
On April 12, the Montana House passed SB 350 by a vote of 67-33. It makes three improvements in the process for a new or previously unqualified party to petition onto the ballot. (1) a signature is valid even if the signer omits a middle initial that is shown on that signer’s voter registration form, or vice versa; (2) signers can’t remove their signatures from the petition after the petition deadline has passed; (3) the person who submits the party petition need not prove that he or she is associated with the party that petitioned.
All Republicans in the House voted “yes”; all Democrats voted “no.” This bill exists because state court judges appointed by Democratic Governors removed the Green Party from the ballot in both 2018 and 2020.
The Montana procedure for a new party still has serious flaws. It requires a number of signatures from each of 33 state house districts, but the number is far from equal for each district. Some districts only need 55 signatures; others need as many as 150. Because the house districts are roughly equal in population, this characteristic of the law violates Equal Protection and the U.S. Supreme Court decision Moore v Ogilvie. Also the March petition deadline is far too early. The Green Party is currently fighting the unequal distribution requirement in the Ninth Circuit. The early deadline is not really part of the lawsuit, because in both 2018 and 2020 the deadline did not prevent the petition from being submitted. The case in the Ninth Circuit is Montana Green Party v Stapleton, 20-35340. The oral argument is May 6 in Portland, Oregon.
The New Mexico Citizens Redistricting Commission, which is new, is required to have two members who are not registered into a major party. In New Mexico, the law recognizes the Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian Parties as “major parties.” If you are a New Mexico voter who would like to serve on the Commission, and you are not a member of either of those three parties, here is a press release which includes a link for applying.
On April 8, the Texas Senate passed SB 1822. It says if the redistricting process is delayed, the 2022 primary will be later than normal. Depending on when the redistricting is done, the primary might be in April, or in May. Normally it is in March.
If the primary is delayed, that will make ballot access easier in 2022, because petitioning in Texas can’t start until after the primary is over. So if the primary is later, then the petitioning period is later and the deadline is later.
On April 9, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued an opinion in State ex rel Zignego v Wisconsin Elections Commission, 2021 WI 32. It agrees with the State Court of Appeals, concerning a purge of the voter rolls. The decision is 5-2. The State Court of Appeals said the State Elections Commission is not obliged to carry out a purge. The specific issue is whether municipal election officials are in charge of the purge, or whether the state Commission is in charge. The Appeals Court, and the Supreme Court majority, agree local officials are in charge of purging. Voter lists are purged when there is information that a voter has moved and has not re-registered at the new address.
