Maine Representative Louis Luchini introduced LD 1726 in December 2017. It severely restricted petitioning around polling sites. The bill had a hearing in December 2017 but no action has been taken on it since. Given the lack of movement for this bill, it appears unlikely to pass.
On February 28, the U.S. Supreme Court heard Minnesota Voters Alliance v Mansky, 16-1435. Here is one news story about the oral argument.
Here is a second news story.
FURTHER UPDATE: here is the Associated Press story. FURTHER UPDATE: Rick Hasen here links to the transcript, and also excerpts an interesting part of the oral argument.
Nebraska election law does not permit candidates to run in a partisan primary if they changed party affiliation during the year before the election. On February 27, Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale ruled that the law only applies to people who switch from one qualified party to another qualified party. Someone who switches from being an independent to being a member of a qualified party is not “changing political party affiliation”.
Therefore, State Senator Bob Krist, who only registered as a Democrat this month, is free to run in the Democratic primary this year. Here is the Secretary of State’s ruling. A similar ruling had been made in Nebraska in 1998.
On February 27, the Minnesota House Government Operations & Elections Policy Committee passed HB 1393. It moves the primary from the second Tuesday in August to the first Tuesday after the third Monday in June. If signed into law, the bill won’t take effect until 2020. But if it were law now, the primary would not be August 14; instead it would be June 19.
If this bill becomes law, the Minnesota ballot access law for new party petitions will be unconstitutional. That petition deadline would move from May to March. The petition requires 5% of the last vote cast, which in 2018 would be 147,247 signatures. This petition is so severe, it has existed since 1913 and it has never been used statewide. Already it was probably unconstitutional under McLain v Meier, an 8th circuit decision from 1980 that struck down North Dakota’s party petition because it had only been used once and required the signatures of 3.3% of the eligible signers.
North Dakota in 1980 let candidates who use the independent procedure choose a party label, and independent candidates never needed more than 300 signatures. But North Dakota’s easy access for independent candidates did not save that state’s party petition. Minnesota also has a relatively easy independent candidate petition. No one ever needs more than 2,000 signatures, and a party label is permitted. But, under McLain v Meier, that would not save the Minnesota party petition.
The Libertarian Party nominates by primary in New Mexico this year, for the first time ever. The only Libertarian seeking the nomination for U.S. Senate is Aubrey Dunn, the incumbent State Lands Commissioner. According to this story, a voter has filed a challenge to Dunn’s primary petition, claiming that it doesn’t have enough valid signatures. However, according to the story, the challenge was filed too late. Scroll down to the bottom of the story.
