On May 22, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it is summarily affirming Republican Party of Louisiana v Federal Election Commission. The vote not to hear the case is 7-2. Read Rick Hasen’s commentary about that. The case challenged the federal campaign finance law that curtails contributions to state and local parties.
On Saturday, May 20, the Texas House again passed HB 25. It had passed earlier but then the Senate had amended it to postpone the effective date until after the 2018 election. Therefore the House had to consider that amendment. The House did accept the amendment, on Saturday. Thanks to Jim Riley for the news.
On May 15, the New York Assembly passed AB 2064. It allows any registered voter to vote during the week prior to an election. This type of procedure already exists in most other states. Sometimes it is called “no-excuse absentee voting.” The vote was 103-40.
On May 18, the Oregon House Rules Committee passed HB 2927, the national popular vote plan bill. It now moves to the house floor, where it has passed in three previous sessions of the legislature. The bill has always been blocked by Senate President Peter Courtney, a Democrat. However, Courtney now says he will not block the bill if it is amended to provide that the voters will vote on the plan in November 2018, and that only if the voters approve it will it become law.
On May 19, the Utah state elections office released guidelines for candidates who want to run for U.S. House, 3rd district. The special election will be held November 7, 2017. It is needed because of the resignation of Congressman Jason Chaffetz.
Qualified parties can easily place a nominee into this special election. They would nominate by convention. The qualified parties are Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, Constitution, and Independent American. The state’s guidelines provide no means for a new party to get on the ballot in time for this election, something that is probably unconstitutional.
Independent candidates can run with 300 signatures, obtained by June 12. Individuals who want the nomination of a ballot-qualified party, and who do not enjoy support at the party meeting, can try to get on that party’s primary ballot, but the petition is extraordinarily difficult. It requires 7,000 signatures of party members (if that party allows independents to vote in its primaries, then independents can also sign). They are due June 12. Utah has 645,215 registered Republicans, and has four U.S. House districts. The exact number of registered Republicans is not known, but if one divides the number of registered Republicans in the state by four, then one can assume that there are approximately 161,304 registered Republicans in the Third District. To get 4.3% of the eligible signers to sign in only 24 days is almost certainly unconstitutional.
