On March 8, filing closed for the North Carolina special election, U.S. House, district three. Candidates from four parties filed: 17 Republicans, 6 Democrats, 2 Libertarians, and one Constitution Party member. Here is the list.
The Constitution Party nominates by convention; the other parties by primary. The primary will be April 30. If any primary results in no one winning at least 30%, there will be a run-off primary on July 9.
On March 8, the U.S. House passed HR 1, by a party-line vote of 234-193. However, the U.S. Senate is not expected to vote on the bill. HR 1 is the omnibus federal election law bill. It provides for public financing of candidates for Congress, nonpartisan redistricting of U.S. House districts, automatic voter registration, imposes new campaign finance restrictions, and makes it more difficult for presidential candidates to qualify for primary season matching funds. The provision for automatic voter registration would assist ballot access, because a larger percentage of petition signers would be registered voters.
It is expected that Democrats in the U.S. House will now introduce new bills that incorporate various provisions of HR 1, so that possibly a few provisions of HR 1 will have a chance to become law.
On March 7, the Delaware Senate passed SB 22, the National Popular Vote Plan bill. The vote was 14-7.
On March 7, the U.S. House defeated an amendment by Congressmember Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts) to set the voting age for federal office at age 16. The vote was 126-305. This bill, if enacted, would have been constitutional, according to the U.S. Supreme Court opinion Oregon v Mitchell, from 1970. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court said the Elections Clause of Article One allows Congress to alter the voting age for federal office, without a constitutional amendment. Thanks to Steve Goodale for this news.
On the evening of Thursday, March 7, New Mexico HB 407 passed the House. Among many other provisions, it lowers the petition requirement for independent candidates from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 2%. It lowers the independent presidential petition to one-half of 1%, although that provision is not worded well.
If the bill is signed into law, Alabama will be the only state that requires statewide non-presidential independent candidates to complete a petition greater than 2% of the last vote.
