The St. Louis initiative to use Approval Voting for the city’s elections for its own officers has enough valid signatures. In November 2020 the voters of St. Louis will vote on whether to use Approval Voting. Approval Voting lets a voter vote for as many candidates as desired, even if only one office is being filled. All votes cast count equally and which candidate has the most votes wins.
On March 30, Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed SB 28. It deletes language added in 2017 that says independent candidates must have this label on the ballot: “Does not qualify to be listed on the ballot as affiliated with a political party.”
The only independent candidate on the Utah ballot in 2018, Marsha Holland, who was running for the legislature, learned that many voters read this to mean that she was not “qualified”, and that injured her campaign. She filed a federal lawsuit in 2019 against that language, and the state asked that the case be delayed until the 2020 legislature could have a chance to fix the problem. The problem has now been fixed, so the lawsuit will be dismissed.
Massachusetts, like 47 other states, elects its presidential electors on a winner-take-all system, in which the slate that gets the highest popular vote wins all of the state’s electors. On March 31, the First Circuit said that provision does not violate the U.S. Constitution. Here is the opinion in Lyman v Baker, 18-2235.
A similar case had the same outcome in Texas earlier this year. Other similar cases are pending in Appellate courts in California and South Carolina. Thanks to Howard Bashman for this news.
John Meyer, an independent candidate for Attorney General of Montana, has sued in state court to force the state to let him use electronic signatures. He needs 16,639 signatures by May 25. See this story. Meyer v Stapleton, 18th judicial district, Gallatin Co., DV-20-362C.
Here is his campaign website, which has a buttom for individuals to provide a signature.
On March 31, Eric Esshaki, a Republican candidate for U.S. House in Michigan, filed a federal lawsuit arguing that because of the health crisis, he cannot collect the needed 1,000 signatures to get on the August primary ballot. Esshaki v Whitman, e.d., 2:20cv-10831. Primary petitions in Michigan are due April 21. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Terrence G. Berg, an Obama appointee. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
