On February 20, the Utah House Government Operations passed HB 259, the bill to end the straight ticket device.
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The Socialist Party will hold a national presidential convention in October 2019. The city hasn’t been chosen yet. In recent decades the Socialist Party has followed this schedule for its presidential conventions.
On February 19, the Washington State House State Government Committee passed SB 5273. It had already passed the State Senate. It moves the presidential primary from May to the second week in March. Thanks to FrontloadingHQ for this news.
On February 20, the Tennessee House Subcommittee on Elections and Campaign Finance passed HB 1273. It provides that voter registration forms will ask the applicant to choose a party, or else choose independent status. It also says that primaries in the future will be closed.
The bill is legally flawed because it does not take into account that any party with its own primary has a First Amendment freedom of association right to invite independents to vote in its primaries, per Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut, a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
The bill is ambiguous as to newly-qualifying parties, which nominate by convention. And it is ambiguous about the ability of voters to register into an unqualified party. It does provide that choices on the voter registration should include a blank line. The sponsor is Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden).
On February 20, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed AB 2570, which reduces the number of signatures needed for candidates seeking a place on a primary ballot. However, the law only pertains to the 2019 partisan local elections. Also it only applies to the part of the state outside of New York city.
The motivation for the bill was that the date change for the primary, from September to June, meant that the primary petitioning period was into the time period when winter weather is severe.