On July 11, the California legislature passed SB 27, the bill to require presidential primary candidates to reveal the last five years of their income tax returns if they want to be on the presidential primary ballot. It now goes to Governor Gavin Newsom. No Republican voted for it in any legislative vote in either chamber, and no Democrat ever voted against it.
The bill does not bar anyone from filing as a write-in in a presidential primary.
On July 11, several minor parties filed a lawsuit against the Texas ballot access laws that pertain to minor parties and independent candidates. Miller v Doe, s.d., 1:19cv-700. The case concerns the new hurdles imposed on minor parties by the 2019 session of the legislature (filing fees for parties that nominate by convention), but also on the old hurdles that have existed for decades in Texas. UPDATE: here is a news story about the lawsuit, based on a press release issued by the plaintiffs.
The parties that are challenging the filing fee are the Libertarian and Green Parties. The parties that are challenging the ballot access petition are the Constitution Party and America’s Party of Texas. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman, an Obama appointee.
On July 9, the California Senate Elections Committee passed AB 1451, the bill to make it more difficult for initiatives to get on the statewide ballot. The bill says at least 10% of the signatures must be collected by unpaid circulators, and makes it illegal to pay circulators per-signature. The bill has already passed the State Senate.
On July 8, the California Assembly passed SB 505. It requires presidential primary candidates to file if they want to be on a California presidential primary, and to fulfill certain fairly easy requirements. Here is the text of the bill.
Although the bill already passed the State Senate, it must return there, because the version of the bill that passed the Senate was somewhat different than the version that passed the Assembly.
Ballotpedia has an updated list of the number of state legislators in each party, including the number of independent and minor party legislators. There are 35 legislators who are not Democrats or Republicans. See here. Thanks to Mike Drucker for the link.
