On February 5, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the application for a stay that had been requested last week by Pennsylvania state officials. As a result, the State Supreme Court order requiring quick redrawing of all U.S. House districts is in effect. If the legislature doesn’t draw new boundaries quickly, the Court will do the job. The new districts will be in effect for the May 2018 primary.
On February 5, the Indiana Senate defeated SB 328 by a vote of 17-31. It would have lowered the number of signatures for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. It would also have set up a procedure to let an unqualified party petition before it has chosen its nominees.
Although this is a discouraging outcome, this is the first time a ballot access improvement bill in Indiana has made even this headway. Although Indiana ballot access has been severe ever since 1983, only this year did a bill get introduced to reform it. Indiana is one of only four states in which Ralph Nader (who placed third in the presidential elections of 2000, 2004, and 2008) never managed to get on the ballot. The other three states have since then eased their ballot access laws. Thanks to Craig Marolf for this news.
Arthur Jones, a white supremacist, is the only person who filed petitions to be on the Republican primary ballot for the U.S. House, 3rd district. He needed 603 valid signatures. No one challenged his petition, so he is on the ballot and no one is running against him for the Republican nomination.
Five individuals did examine his petition, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections’ web page, so even during the challenge period, there was an awareness of Jones’ filing. See this story.
On February 1, the Florida Constitutional Revision Commission’s General Provisions Committee defeated top-two by a vote of 7-0. The Florida Commission has the power to put ideas for changing the state constitution on the November 2018 ballot. The only election idea it will be putting on the ballot is a tweak to the law that lets all voters vote in a primary, for a particular office, if only members of a single party (and no independents) file. The tweak is to deem all write-in candidates in the general election (for that particular office) to be members of that same party, whether they really are or not.
For many years, Illinois has permitted anyone to be on the ballot who files a petition of even one signature, if no one challenges that candidate. However, for the first time, in 2018 the State Board of Elections will reject anyone who doesn’t file at least 10% of the required number of signatures. This appears to be an administrative decision, not a decision caused by any statutory change.
