On December 27, Missouri Governor Mike Parson, a Republican, told the press he thinks the Missouri initiative ballot access procedure is too easy. It requires signatures of 5% of the last gubernatorial vote for a statute, and 8% for a state constitutional amendment. He didn’t say how he would make it more difficult. See this story. Thanks to Sam Cahnman for the link.
Florida State Senator Aaron Bean (R-Jacksonville) has introduced SJR 118, to make Secretary of State an elected position. Currently the Governor appoints the Secretary of State. Secretary of State was last an elected office in Florida in 1998, when Katherine Harris, a Republican, was elected.
Two Florida Representatives have introduced HJR 57, which changes the popular vote majority for constitutional revisions to pass, from 60%, to 66 2/3rds%. This is probably a reaction to the surprising results of the 13 constitutional amendments that were put on the ballot by the 2018 Constitutional Revision Commission. All but one of them passed, despite the 60% majority needed. But only four of them got as much as two-thirds of the popular vote. The authors are Rick Roth (R-Palm Beach) and Bob Rommel (R-Naples).
Matt Welch of Reason has this excellent article debunking the idea that Jill Stein’s 2016 campaign caused Hillary Clinton to lose. Welch relies on exit poll data.
Several California State Senators have introduced SB 27, which says that no one can be on the ballot in a presidential primary election who has not revealed his or her federal income tax returns for the last five years. A somewhat similar bill was vetoed last year by Governor Jerry Brown, but he won’t be in office during 2019.
