On February 19, the Alaska Supreme Court heard arguments in Meyer v Alaskans for Better Elections, S17629. The issue is whether the initiative for a top-four system violates the state constitutional provision that initiatives must deal with a single subject.

The top-four initiative includes a plan to abolish party nominees. Instead, all candidates for congress and state office would run in the August primary, and then only the top four vote-getters would be on the general election ballot.

The initiative also says that the November ballot (but not the primary) should use ranked choice voting.

Finally, it says that campaign contributions must be reported within 24 hours of the receipt of the contribution.

The state elections office believes the initiative is invalid because campaign finance is a different subject that abolishing party nominees. See this story about the hearing.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear two cases involving the rights of presidential electors this term. The Washington state case is Chaifalo v Washington, and the Colorado case is Colorado Department of State v Baca. The briefs of the presidential electors are due March 2, and the briefs of the states of Washington and Colorado are due April 1. After the briefs are in, the court will set a hearing date.

On February 19, the New Hampshire House defeated HB 1214 on a voice vote. It would have eased ballot access for minor parties.

The House also defeated HB 1403, which would have changed New Hampshire general election ballots from party-column ballots, to office-group ballots. Very few states still have party-column ballots. The others are Connecticut, Delaware, New York, and most counties in New Jersey. Thanks to Darryl Perry for this news.