On Friday evening, February 1, the New Mexico House passed HB 55, the National Popular Vote bill. Here is the roll-call. The vote was 41-27. The bill now goes to the Senate.
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On February 1, the Hawaii House Judiciary Committee defeated HB 167, which would have removed the column on petitions for the signer to place the last four digits of the signer’s Social Security number.
The Kansas House Elections Committee has introduced HB 2113. It lowers the petition for a newly-qualifying party from 2% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 1%. Also it expands the time to obtain the signatures from six months to one year.
The Green Party did the lobbying to bring this bill into existence. The Green Party has never been able to get on the ballot as a party in Kansas. Thanks to Nick Blessing for this news.
As previously noted, on January 11, a Wisconsin state trial court ruled in favor of the Wisconsin Elections Commission and Jill Stein in Elections Systems and Software v Election Commission. The issue was whether Stein’s experts, who are permitted to look at the voting software in connection with Stein’s recount of the 2016 presidential vote, are free to comment on that software afterwards. The trial court had ruled that they may comment, as long as they don’t reveal any technical details. On February 1, the vote-counting machine makers filed an appeal.
A lawsuit is pending in U.S. District Court in Arizona on whether the Governor has the authority to postpone a special election for U.S. Senate (to replace John McCain) until November 2020. Tedards v Ducey, 2:18cv-4241. The plaintiffs are Arizona voters who argue that McCain’s seat should be filled with a special election sometime this year. McCain died in August 2018 and the gubernatorial appointee, Martha McSally, is now holding the seat.
On January 31, U.S. District Court Judge Diane J. Humetewa, an Obama appointee, asked each side to respond by February 8 as to whether any more individuals must be brought into the lawsuit (such as Senator McSally), and also whether the case can be decided as a matter of law, or whether either side wants witnesses and facts to be aired. The responses to her questions will largely determine whether this case will be settled quickly or not.