The U.S. Supreme Court will consider the Hawaii and Montana open primary cases at its May 11 conference. The Democratic Party of Hawaii and the Republican Party of Montana are both hoping that the Court will accept their cases. The lower courts had upheld the open primaries in both states, saying there is no evidence that those parties are injured by the open primaries.
On Sunday, April 23, the Washington state legislature’s regular session ended. See this story. The bill to move the presidential primary from May to March had passed the Senate on March 6, but it didn’t get taken up in the House. But it could pass in the special session that is about to begin.
The regular session ended with no budget. It also ended up with no solution to the problem that the State Supreme Court has been fining the state $100,000 per day until the education funding problem is solved. Three years ago the Court ruled that the disparity in public funding between wealthy districts and poor districts violates the State Constitution, but the legislature can’t agree on how to resolve the issue.
Washington has been using the top-two system starting in 2008. Supporters of top-two never discuss how it has worked in Washington state. The Senate is controlled by Democrats and the House is controlled by Republicans, which makes it difficult for budgets to be passed. It has become also routine in Washington state that the budget can’t pass in the regular session, and only passes after one or two special sessions.
Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz has said he may resign from the U.S. House in the next few months. If Utah then holds a special election to fill his seat, each qualified party will nominate by party meeting. See this story.
On April 18, the Nebraska Government, Military & Veterans Affairs Committee passed LB 25. It changes the way Nebraska elects presidential electors. Currently each U.S. House district elects its own elector. The bill would change that so that all the electoral votes go to the winner of the statewide presidential popular vote.
Currently Maine and Nebraska are the only states which split their electoral votes, in which each U.S. House district elects its own elector.
On April 24, the Nebraska Senate unanimously approved LB 34. It adds a second method for a party to remain on the ballot. The old law requires a party to poll 5% for any statewide race at either of the last two elections. The bill says a party also remains on the ballot if it has at least 10,000 registered members.
The only three parties on the Nebraska ballot now are the Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian Parties. The Libertarian Party has slightly more than 11,000 registrants. Therefore, assuming the bill is signed into law by the Governor, the Libertarian Party won’t need to run any statewide candidates in 2018 if it doesn’t wish to, and would still remain on the ballot.
