On April 2, the Hawaii Senate Judiciary Committee passed HB 712, one of the presidential tax returns bills. It only applies to president and vice-president. By contrast, SB 94, the defeated bill, applied to some state offices as well.
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On April 2, the California Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB 27, the bill requiring presidential primary candidates to reveal the last five years of their income tax returns. The vote was 7-1; the only Republican on the Committee cast the “no” vote. The bill now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
On April 2, the California Senate Elections Committee unanimously passed SB 505. It makes it more difficult for presidential candidates to get on the primary ballots, especially for the Peace & Freedom Party and the American Independent Party. The author of the bill, Senator Tom Umberg, told the witness for the Peace & Freedom Party that candidates who want to be on the PFP ballot can just collect signatures. The petition would need 1% of the party’s registrants, and only party members could sign. Senator Umberg said a PFP presidential candidate would only need about 750 signatures. Of course, when the California Constitution was amended in 1972, concerning presidential primary ballot access, the whole objective was to eliminate the need for petitions for that purpose.
According to Michael Drucker’s Independent View, the New York State Board of Elections has designed the part of the voter registration form that asks applicants to choose a party. See the new form here.
Reason blog has this article about Congressman Justin Amash and the idea that he might seek the 2020 Libertarian presidential nomination.