On May 30, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, vetoed AB 186, the National Popular Vote Plan bill.
4
On May 29, the Oregon House Rules Committee passed SB 870, the National Popular Vote Plan bill. The vote was 4-3. The bill has already passed the State Senate.
Tucson elects a Mayor in November 2019. According to this story, the only candidates who managed to petition for that office are Democrats and one independent candidate. Tucson is the only city in Arizona with partisan elections. In Arizona, petitions are required to get on primary ballots.
An Arkansas voter who wishes to give campaign contributions to some candidates for state office for the 2022 election has sued to overturn an Arkansas law that does not permit her to do that, this early. The law forbids campaign contributions given more than two years before the election. Jones v Jegley, e.d., 4:19cv-234. U.S. District Court Judge James Moody will hold a hearing on June 12, to determine if the law should be enjoined. Thanks to the Institute for Free Speech for this news.
On May 29, the Coalition for Free & Equal Elections (COFOE) filed an amicus curiae brief in Hall v Merrill, 18-1362. This is the Alabama ballot access case pending in the U.S. Supreme Court. The original issue in U.S. District Court was the constitutionality of Alabama’s 3% petition, as applied to special elections, when the normal petitioning period is much shorter. The plaintiff, James Hall, was an independent candidate for a special U.S. House election in 2013.
He won in U.S. District Court, after the election was over. The U.S. District Court said it was unconstitutional for him to be required to collect 5,938 valid signatures in a short time period. Then the state appealed, and the Eleventh Circuit ruled 2-1 that the case should not have been heard after the election was over, because it was moot. Therefore the Eleventh Circuit erased the U.S. District Court win, leaving the issue undecided. Hall now asks the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that the Eleventh Circuit was wrong about mootness.
COFOE was formed in 1985. It gets all of its income from contributions, generally from people who subscribe to Ballot Access News. COFOE appreciates all the people who have contributed through the years, which makes possible the filing of the amicus brief.
Alabama’s brief, which will presumably ask the U.S. Supreme Court not to take the case, is due on July 1.