Virginia SB 126 did not pass, and the legislature has now adjourned. It would have repealed the law that lets incumbents dictate to their party which nomination method should be used for that particular office, convention or primary. The law was held unconstitutional last year by the Fourth Circuit, but it will remain on the books, even though it has no force.
On March 12, the last day of the session, the Utah legislature passed HB 70, the bill to end the straight-ticket device.
The Louisiana Secretary of State will postpone the presidential primary from April 4 to June, according to this story. The announcement is not yet on the Secretary of State’s web page.
Scotusblog has named the cert petition in Schmitt v LaRose as a “petition of the day.” That means Scotusblog thinks that case has a fair chance of being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Schmitt v LaRose is an Ohio case, in which some proponents of a local initiative relating to marijuana gathered enough valid signatures, but the county election board kept off the ballot anyway because the board felt if the initiative passed, it would be invalid as a matter of policy. The lower courts upheld the action of the board of elections, and minimized First Amendment protection for the content of initiatives.
Filing has closed for the May 2020 Nebraska primaries. Mark Elsworth, somewhat to his surprise, is the default Democratic Party nominee for U.S. House, 3rd district. No other person filed in the Democratic primary for that seat. So it seems inevitable that he will be the Democratic nominee, even though Nebraska does permit write-ins in primaries.
The Third District is the most rural part of Nebraska, including the western two-thirds of the state.
As a result, Elsworth will not be the presidential nominee of the Legal Marijuana Now Party. Instead the party presidential nominee will be Rudy Reyes.
