The Ninth Circuit has set out a briefing schedule for Citizens for Fair Representation v Padilla, 18-17458. The organizations and voters challenging the huge population of California legislative districts must file the opening brief by May 8. The state brief is then due June 7.
Among the groups challenging the current districts are two small cities, both in the Sacramento Valley. They are the cities of Williams and Colusa.
On February 4, the Indiana Senate Elections Committee passed SB 571, which lowers the number of signatures for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. The vote was 5-2, with all Republicans at the meeting voting “yes” and the two Democrats voting “no.”
The bill lowers the statewide petition from 44,934 signatures (2% of the last vote cast for Secretary of State) to exactly 4,500 signatures.
On January 28, the New York Assembly passed AB 2570. It lowers the number of signatures to get on primary ballots, for 2019 only, to just one-fourth of the normal number of signatures for primary ballot access. It applies to all partisan office except offices in New York city.
An identical bill, SB 2862, is pending in the State Senate. The rationale for the bills is that this is the first year since the mid-1970’s that the primary has been in June. Candidates running in primaries are having trouble organizing their petition drives this year, because they aren’t accustomed to such an early petitioning period. The bill doesn’t apply to New York city because the bill’s sponsors don’t believe it is as difficult to get signatures in New York city because the population is so much denser.
Ryan Cooper, who has been a correspondent for The Week for five years, and formerly worked for Washington Monthly, here criticizes U.S. ballot access laws.
South Carolina Representative Dwight Loftis (R-Greenville) has introduced HB 3581. It would provide that the voter registration form should ask applicants about party membership. Then, it would permit parties to close their primaries so that only party members could vote in those primaries. However, it also recognizes the right of a party to let independent voters vote in its primaries, if the party notifies the state of its wishes.
The bill has nine co-sponsors, all Republicans. They are Alan Clemmons, Mike Burns, Bill Chumley, Bill Taylor, G. Murrell Smith, Adam Morgan, Josiah Magnuson, Bobby Cox, and Jeff Bradley.
