Nevada’s bill for the National Popular Vote Plan bill failed to pass this year. It was a constitutional amendment, AJR 6, and it had passed last year. But in Nevada, proposed constitutional amendments must pass two sessions in a row.
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On May 8, the South Carolina legislature adjourned. HB 3557, the bill that would have required the nominees of parties that nominate by convention to pay a filing fee, failed to pass. It had passed the House but made no headway in the State Senate.
On May 9, Florida State Senator Jason Pizzo, who is an independent, said he will run for Governor next year. See this story.
He can get on the November 2026 ballot simply by paying a filing fee. Florida elimated mandatory ballot access petitions (except for independent presidential candidates) in 1998, by a vote of the people. Previously, he would have needed a petition of 3% of the registered voters, which nowadays would be over 400,000 signatures.
Florida puts the nominees of major parties at the top of the ballot, followed by minor party nominees, and independent candidates are listed last. Independent candidates in Florida have the ballot label “NPA”.
The last time Florida elected a Governor who was neither a Democratic nor a Republican nominee was 1916, when the Prohibition Party nominee, Sidney J.. Catts, won. Back then Florida didn’t print party labels on the general election ballot.
On May 1, the Texas House Elections Committee passed HB 4309. It says that parties that nominate by convention will be the recipients of filing fees paid by members of the party who seek a convention nomination. Current law sends the money to the state government.
For parties that nominate by primary (i.e., the Democratic and Republican Parties), current law send the filing fees paid by members of those parties to their party. Therefore, HB 4309 would treat qualified minor parties the same as the qualified major parties. The Libertarian Party was instrumental in getting HB 4309 introduced.
On May 8, fifteen states filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Libby v Fecteau, 24A1051. This is the case filed by a Maine legislator to restore her right to vote on bills on the floor of the State House of Representatives. The states are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The brief argues that the doctrine of legislative immunity does not apply because depriving a member of the legislature of her ability to vote on bills is not a normal legislative function. The brief refers to the 1920 instance when the New York legislature expelled all elected Socialist Party members. It quotes Charles Evans Hughes as saying that action was wrong. Hughes was Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and he had also been the Republican nominee for President in 1916.