The individuals who are challenging Seattle’s voucher system of public funding have filed this reply brief in the U.S. Supreme Court. Elster v City of Seattle, 19-608. The Washington State Supreme Court had upheld the system. It is funded by property taxes. It provides every voter with four campaign finance vouchers. The voter is free to send them to any candidate for city office, and then the candidate redeems the voucher for $25 to be used in his or her campaign. The individuals who filed the lawsuit argue that the system violates their First Amendment rights.

The New Mexico legislature adjourned on February 20. The 2020 session did not pass any election law bills.

Bills that failed to pass included a bill to make Secretary of State elections non-partisan; to allow independent voters to vote in party primaries; to move the presidential primary from June to January; and the omnibus election law bill making small changes. Usually those bills pass, but not this year.

On February 24, the Senate Rules Committee passed HB 4026. It eases the registration test for a party to remain on the ballot, from one-half of 1% of the state total, to one-fourth of 1% of the state total. The registration test is an alternate test. Parties either need to pass the registration test, or the vote test. The vote test is 1% for any statewide race at either of the last two elections.

The bill had already passed the House. It was requested by the Working Families Party, which generally can’t use the vote test because it usually doesn’t have its own nominees for statewide offices; instead it typically nominates the Democratic nominee. In Oregon, fusion is aggregated, so there is no separate vote for each party when two parties have the same nominee. So the Working Families Party doesn’t get credit for the vote its nominee receives, and therefore the party is dependent on passing the alternate registration test.