The California legislature has placed a proposed constitutional amendment on the November 2020 ballot. Proposition 18 will ask voters if the voting age should be reduced to 17, if the voter would be age 18 by the general election for the same offices.
On July 6, the U.S. Supreme Court released its opinions in Chiafalo v Washington and Colorado Department of State v Baca, numbers 19-608 and 19-465. The Court ruled unanimously that states can replace or punish presidential electors who vote for someone other than the candidate who carried the popular vote in that state.
The decision is by Justice Elena Kagan, who said the Constitution is silent on the question. The only precedent she cited is Ray v Blair, 343 U.S. 214 (1952). But that case was over whether a political party had the right to exclude from its primary ballot the names of candidates for presidential elector who wouldn’t sign a pledge prepared by the party, that they would vote for the popular vote winner. At the time, the Alabama Democratic Party chose presidential elector nominees in its primary. No state does that any longer. The decision is only 18 pages.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch agreed with the outcome, but they would have upheld the state laws on Tenth Amendment grounds. Here is the Washington state opinion.
Here is a one-paragraph decision in the Colorado case.
Under the literal language of the laws of these two states, the electors would be forced to vote for a deceased candidate. Footnote 8 mentions this problem and says states are of course free to write laws dealing with this.
On July 6, the Fourth Circuit issued an opinion in Buscemi v Bell, 19-2355, a North Carolina ballot access case. The Fourth Circuit said the March 3 petition deadline for independent candidates, even presidential candidates, is constitutional. This completely contradicts the U.S. Supreme Court opinion Anderson v Celebrezze, 460 U.S. 780, which struck down Ohio’s independent presidential petition deadline of March 20. Furthermore in the Ohio case, only 5,000 signatures were required; but in North Carolina in 2020, independent candidates need 70,666 signatures.
The decision does not mention Anderson v Celebrezze’s holding. Nor does it mention Anderson v Morris, 636 F.2d 55 (1980), in which the Fourth Circuit invalidated the Maryland independent petition deadline, which by coincidence was also March 3. The Fourth Circuit now says it is constitutional to put the independent candidate deadline on the date of the primary, or the day before. That may be true for independent candidates for non-presidential office, but it is not true for presidential independent candidates. If that were true, it would have been constitutional in 2008 for New Hampshire to have had an independent presidential petition deadline of January 8.
The decision also upholds the number of signatures, even though it is a number six times as high as the number of signatures for a new party. In 2004 a U.S. District Court in North Carolina ruled that it is unconstitutional for a state to require more signatures for a statewide independent candidate than for a new party. DeLaney v Bartlett, 370 F.Supp.373 (m.d.). The new Fourth Circuit opinion does not mention DeLaney v Bartlett. The decision also does not mention a 1980 decision of the eastern district of North Carolina, Greaves v State Board of Elections, 508 F.Supp.78, which struck down the April 25 deadline for independent candidates for all office.
Nor does the decision mention the U.S. Supreme Court opinion Mandel v Bradley, 432 U.S. 173, which said that early non-presidential independent deadlines are unconstitutional if the historical record shows that few independent candidates ever qualify. In the entire history of North Carolina government-printed ballots, only once has any independent statewide candidate ever qualfied.
The decision is by Judge Barbara Keenan, an Obama appointee; and signed by Judge Diana Gribbon Motz, a Clinton appointee; and Pamela Harris, an Obama appointee.
This news story says the Montana Libertarian Party is about to choose a nominee U.S. Senate nominee, because the earlier nominee withdrew.
On July 1, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves signed HCR 47. It provides that the voters will vote on a proposed constitutional amendment in November 2020 to change the gubernatorial election system. Currently a winner for Governor must not only poll the most votes in November, but must also carry a majority of the state house districts. The amendment would eliminate the provision concerning house districts. If the amendment passes, the winner would be whoever got the most votes, except if no one got 50%, there would be a runoff the following January.
Mississippi elects its governors in November of the odd years before presidential election years, such as 2011, 2015, and 2019.
