Some supporters of the National Popular Vote idea have completed the paperwork to begin circulating an initiative petition in Missouri for the plan. Other states that have the initiative process, but which have not yet passed the plan, are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. Thanks to Ken Bush for this news.
Alaska Representative Gabrielle Ledoux (R-Anchorage) introduced HB 200 on March 29. It converts Alaska elections to top-two elections. The bill has a hearing on Monday, April 10, at 1 pm, in the House Judiciary Committee. The Committee will meet again on the bill on Wednesday, April 12, for a vote.
Here is the text of the bill.
The bill appears to provide for party labels on the ballots without any “prefers” verbiage, which means that if it passed as written, it would be vulnerable to a freedom of association challenge. The California and Washington top-two systems survived freedom of association challenges by providing that party labels on the ballot should be prefaced by the word “prefers” or “preference”, so as to make it clear that the parties did not nominate the listed candidates.
The bill makes it more difficult for groups to become and remain qualified parties. Currently Alaska lets a group become a qualified party if it polls 3% for a particular statewide race (the identity of the race varies each year, depending on which offices are up). But that would be deleted. The only way a group could become a qualified party would be with a registration drive. No party in Alaska has ever gained qualified status the first time via registration. The qualified parties in Alaska in the years since Alaska became a state all first gained party status by meeting the vote test. They include the Libertarian Party in 1982, the Alaskan Independence Party in 1982 (with the help of a court case), the Green Party in 1990, and the Republican Moderate Party in 1998.
On April 6, independent congressional candidate James Hall filed this brief in the Eleventh Circuit in Hall v Merrill, 16-16766. The issue is whether the state can require a difficult petition for an independent candidate in a special election, when the time for gathering signatures is severely shortened. Hall won the case in U.S. District Court last year, and the state is trying to get that decision reversed.
The U.S. District Court that is evaluating Montana’s ballot access laws for independent candidates in special U.S. House elections hasn’t ruled, as of 9:00 p.m. Thursday, April 6. The decision could come out in the middle of the night, but it is more likely to be released in business hours on Friday, April 7. The case is Breck v Stapleton, 9:17cv-36. The election is in May.
On April 6, the Republican and Green nominees for state House, Pennsylvania 197th district, filed a federal lawsuit to overturn the March 21 special election. Little v Vazquez, e.d., 17-cv-1562. The case is assigned to Judge Joel Slomsky, a Bush Sr. appointee.
