On January 29, the Pennsylvania Senate unanimously passed SB 779. It moves the primary for all office, including president, from the fourth Tuesday in April to the third Tuesday in March. It would not take effect until 2024. It would have no impact on petition deadlines for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties.
On February 19, the Eleventh Circuit issued a 78-page ruling in Jones v Governor of Florida, 19-14551. By a vote of 3-0, it upholds the injunction issued earlier by the U.S. District Court, holding that Florida ex-felons who cannot afford to pay restitution, fines, and court costs, must be allowed to register to vote. Here is the ruling.
The three judges on the case are R. Lanier Anderson, a Carter appointee; Stanley Marcus, a Clinton appointee, and visiting U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Rothstein, a Carter appointee. The decision says that heightened scrutiny applies to this Equal Protection case. It also came close to asserting that the Florida restriction, at least as applied to the particular plaintiffs, is not even rational.
The case is not over. There will be a trial in U.S. District Court. But in the meantime, the state will need to set up machinery for determining which ex-felons can afford to pay, and which cannot. Evidence so far in this case suggests that 80% of ex-felons cannot afford to pay court costs, restitution, or fines in their cases. It is likely that 1,000,000 individuals can now seek to register to vote.
The Voice of San Diego, an on-line non-profit news source, has this article about Rocky De La Fuente and his ballot access lawsuits.
As of February 18, here is the number of active registered voters in Connecticut: Democratic 810,878; Republican 459,558; Independent Party 29,550; Libertarian 2,912; Green 1,495; Working Families 349; independent and other 895,181.
The percentages are: Democratic 36.86%; Republican 20.89%; Independent Party 1.34%; Libertarian .13%; Green .07%; Working Families .02%; independent and other 40.69%.
In October 2018, the percentages were: Democratic 36.59%; Republican 21.41%; Independent Party 1.24%; Libertarian .14%; Green .08%; Working Families .01%; independent and other 40.52%.
The Minnesota Senate State Government Finance & Policy & Elections Committee will hear SF 752 on Thursday, February 20, at 1 p.m. This is one of the two identical bills that improves ballot access. The other such bill is HF 708. Both bills were introduced in January 2019, and until now neither of them has made any headway.
The bills cut the number of signatures on the party petition from 5% of the last vote cast (over 100,000) to exactly 20,000. They cut the vote test for a party from 5% to 1%. They delete the language that says a signer can’t sign an independent candidate petition if the signer expects to vote for the same office in the primary. They cut the number of signatures for independent candidates for the legislature from 500, to 400 for State Senate and 200 for State Representative. In special elections the normal number of signatures is halved.
The bills also give a party the ability to keep candidates out of the primary if the party feels the candidate is not a member. The State Supreme Court of Minnesota also implicitly seemed to approve of this idea on January 9, when he ruled that if the Republican Party doesn’t want Rocky De La Fuente on its presidential primary ballot, then the party is free to exclude him and leave President Donald Trump as the only name. That case is De La Fuente v Simon, A19-1994. The Court still hasn’t issued the full opinion explaining the rationale for its decision.
