On April 25, Texas Governor Greg Abbott called a special election for U.S. House, 27th district, to replace Congressman Blake Farenthold, who resigned April 6.
All candidates qualify by filing fee, which is due April 27. Texas special elections do not have party nominees, although party labels are printed on the ballot. The election will be June 30. IF no one gets 50%, there will be a runoff sometime in September. Thanks to Tony Roza for this news.
New Jersey is the newest state to have automatic voter registration, which is a system in which every adult citizen known by the government to exist is automatically registered, unless the individual declines. The New Jersey bill, AB 2014, was signed on April 17.
The other states are Alaska, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia; also the District of Columbia has it. Petition validity is significantly higher in states with automatic voter registration.
On April 18, the California Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB 1394, which makes it illegal for anyone to pay initiative petition circulators, except on an hourly wage basis. The bill even blocks paying a bonus to high producers. The bill now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
On April 24, the U.S. Supreme Court heard Abbott v Perez, 17-586, the Texas racial gerrymandering case. This article describes the hearing, which mostly focused on procedure, and whether the Court even has jurisdiction. Battles over Texas redistricting have been going on in federal court since 2011.
UPDATE: here is the oral argument transcript.
A bill to improve Oklahoma ballot access is on the House calendar for April 25. It eases the definition of “political party.” Current law requires a party to poll 2.5% of the vote for the office at the top of the ballot every two years (President, Governor). SB 350 changes that to 2.5% for any statewide race at either of the last two elections. Last year it passed the State Senate, and the House committees. Oklahoma has two-year legislative sessions. UPDATE: this post has been re-written; the original post said SB 350 was not likely to pass, but that was inaccurate.
Another bill, SB 1038, is not likely to pass. It would have eased the filing fee for candidates whose income places them below the poverty level. It would also have eased the petition in lieu of filing fee for such candidates. It had passed the Senate but is not likely to be brought up for a vote in the House.
The Libertarian Party is now on the ballot, but it won’t remain on the ballot after November 2018 unless it polls at least 2.5% for Governor, or unless the bill is signed into law. The last time a third party was on the ballot in an Oklahoma midterm year was 1998, when the Reform Party was on. The Reform Party gubernatorial nominee only polled 1.21%.
