The Nebraska Senate Government, Military & Veterans Affairs Committee will hear LB 969 on Friday, February 23. It lowers the number of signatures for a non-presidential independent candidate from 10% of the number of registered voters to 4,000 signatures. That was the old law until 2016.
On February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Johnson v Commission on Presidential Debates, 17-916. The other presidential debates case, Level the Playing Field v Federal Elections Commission, is still pending in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. A decision on that case could come at any time.
Mexico holds a presidential election on July 1, 2018. Three party nominees and three independent candidates are expected to be listed on the ballot. The three qualified parties are PAN, Morena, and PRI. See this story about the three independent candidates who qualified.
On February 13, the Arizona House Federalism, Property Rights & Public Policy Committee passed HCR 2022. If this bill passes the legislature, it would amend the State Constitution, so would go to a public vote in November 2018. It says that no more primaries are permitted for U.S. Senate. Instead, the only nominees in the November ballot for U.S. Senate would be four individuals chosen by state legislators. The bill does not explain whether write-ins would still be allowed in November for U.S. Senate.
The sponsors are Representative Travis Grantham (R-Gilbert) and Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley). The committee vote was 6-3.
The bill is clearly in violation of Williams v Rhodes, the U.S. Supreme Court decision which said that states cannot limit the general election ballot to just Republican and Democratic nominees. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.
See this post from the Election Law Blog, which says that on February 19, a holiday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court settled the 2018 boundaries of the state’s U.S. House districts. The Election Law Blog also has a small map showing the new districts.
UPDATE: here is the majority decision, which has detailed maps.
