On January 29, the New Mexico House Consumer & Public Affairs Committee passed HB 93 by 3-2, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed. It would let independents and members of unqualified parties vote in any party primary. Now the bill goes to the House State Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee.
On January 29, two New Mexico legislators introduced a complete re-write of the Election Code. Among many other provisions, HB 407 lowers the number of signatures for independent candidates. The existing law requires a petition of 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, which is the most severe independent presidential requirement in the nation.
The bill changes the independent presidential petition to one-half of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote, and the independent petition for other statewide office, and legislature, and county office, to 2% of the last gubernatorial vote. Oddly enough, though, for U.S. House, the requirement would continue to be 3%.
The authors are Senator Daniel Ivey-Soto (D-Albuquerque) and Representative Linda Trujillo (D-Santa Fe). It is believed that this bill has the support of the Secretary of State. Thanks to Rick Lass for the news about the bill.
New Hampshire Representative Ellen Read (D-Rockingham County) and five others have introduced HB 728, which would provide that all federal and state primaries and elections should use ranked choice voting.
On January 28, the Arkansas House unanimously passed HB 1152, which moves the non-presidential independent candidate petition deadline from March to May. However the law would still require independents to file a declaration of candidacy in March. This bill exists because a year ago, a U.S. District Court struck down the March deadline.
On January 30, the Arkansas Senate passed SB 163 by a vote of 27-7. It raises the number of signatures needed for a newly-qualifying party from 10,000 signatures to 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, which would be almost 27,000 signatures for 2020. Every Republican Senator voted for the bill, and one Democrat, Senator Greg Leding, also voted for it.
Twice, a U.S. District Court had ruled the old 3% petition unconstitutional, in 1996 in a Reform Party case, and again in a 2006 Green Party case.
Furthermore, the deadline for the petition is now January 2. Yet the federal courts had twice in the past ruled that similar Arkansas party petition deadlines were unconstitutional. In 1977 the American Party won a lawsuit that the April deadline was too early. In 1996 the Reform Party won a lawsuit against the January deadline. Every time a party won against the deadline in court, the legislature would fix it, but then a few years later they would forget what had happened, and make it earlier again. After the 1996 decision the legislature moved that deadline to July, and then to May, and then to January.
If this bill is signed into law, it will be an easy target for a lawsuit.
