On the evening of April 24, Monday, the Texas House Elections Committee heard testimony on HB 3068, which improves ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates. Supporting the bill were representatives of America’s Party, the Green Party, and the Libertarian Party. The committee will vote some time later on whether to pass the bill. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.
The Colorado Independent has this interesting story about the presidential electors in 2016 who struggled to assert their right to vote for any qualified presidential candidate in the electoral college — the so-called faithless electors.
The story says that the one elector who refused to vote for Hillary Clinton may yet be indicted, even though he was expelled as a elector at the meeting of the electoral college. The story also summarizes the current court proceedings.
On April 26, the Eighth Circuit issued an opinion in Moore v Martin, 15-3558. The issue is the March petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates. The U.S. District Court had upheld that deadline. The Eighth Circuit says that more facts are needed to settle the case, and sends it back to the U.S. District Court.
The independent petition deadline had been in May, until 2013, when it was moved to March.
The state had argued that it needs a March petition deadline for independent candidates, because it must check initiative petitions later in the year and it must get the independent candidate petitions checked early so as to give itself lots of time to check initiative petitions. Initiative petitions are due in July. Therefore, on remand, the court is supposed to learn “What periods of time, between the former May 1 deadline for independent candidate petitions and the early July deadline for initiative petitions, were available for the state to process independent candidate petitions.” Also, the lower court must now establish “when independent candidate petitions were in fact processed in the past” and learn “the amount of time required to process independent candidate petitions” and “the feasibility of temporarily hiring additional election workers.”
If the facts show that the state can manage to check the independent petitions without the need for a March 1 deadline, then that March 1 deadline will be unconstitutional.
The decision is 2-1. The dissenting judge argued that it is already obvious that the state can check independent candidate petitions even without a March 1 deadline. The majority decision is by Judge Roger Wollman, a Reagan appointee, and is signed by Judge Duane Benton, a Bush Jr. appointee. The dissent is by Judge Lavenski Smith, a Bush Jr. appointee.
Vox has this article by Lee Drutman, in support of electing members of the U.S. House in multi-member districts and proportional voting. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
Currently Delaware permits new parties to get on the ballot as late as August of election years. In Delaware, only the Democratic and Republican Parties nominate by primary; all other parties nominate by convention. Last month the Delaware House passed HB 89, moving the Delaware primary for all office from September to April, but the bill did not alter the deadline for newly-qualifying parties to get on the ballot or otherwise affect minor parties.
However, on April 25, Delaware Senator Margaret Rose Henry (D-Wilmington), the Senate Majority Leader, filed an amendment to the bill. It would force newly-qualifying parties to qualify by March, and require all minor parties to choose their non-presidential nominees no later than April. The amendment has not received a vote.
