The Centrist Project, which hopes to elect more independents to Congress in 2018, here has short articles and pictures for some of the current independents in Congress and state legislatures.
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On May 5, Iowa Governor Terry Brandstad signed HF 516, which eliminates the straight-ticket device and makes other election law changes. A blog post earlier this week said he had signed it, but that was based on misinformation, so that post had been taken down.
The only states that still have the device are Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah; also it is still in effect in Michigan, even though it has been repealed, because a federal judge ordered it left in place, at least for 2016.
The Texas House may vote on a bill to delete the device on Friday, May 5, or Saturday, May 6.
The only state in which the legislature has passed a bill requiring presidential candidates to reveal their tax returns is New Jersey. On May 1, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie vetoed the New Jersey bill, SB 3048. Here is his veto message.
This article in The Independent says that key leaders of the Labour Party of Great Britain are edging toward support of proportional representation.
On May 4, the Alabama House passed HB 552. It lowers the independent candidate petition requirement in special elections from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 1%. It does not apply to special elections if the special election was called more than 120 days before the petition deadline.
In the matter of the upcoming special U.S. Senate election to be held this year, that special election was called on April 19, and the petition deadline is August 15. That interval is less than 120 days, so assuming this bill is signed into law, the independent petition requirement for that special election will be 11,804 signatures instead of 35,413. The bill now goes to the State Senate.
The bill gives no relief to petitions to put the nominee of an unqualified party on the ballot.
In 1990, a U.S. District Court in Alabama ruled that it was unconstitutional for the state to provide a higher petition requirement for independents than for newly-qualifying parties. That was Patton v Camp. Given that precedent in Alabama, it is odd that HB 552 doesn’t also include petitions for newly-qualifying parties. Thanks to Joshua Cassity for the news about HB 552.