California Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Campbell), the chair of the Assembly Elections Committee, has introduced ACA 10. It would change the voting age from 18 to 17. Because it is a constitutional amendment, if it passes the legislature, the voters would vote on it in 2018.
On March 6, the Washington Senate passed SB 5333, which moves the presidential primary from the fourth Tuesday in May to the second Tuesday in March. A similar bill in the House, HB 1469, has passed a House Committee.
On March 9, the New Hampshire State Senate passed SB 114. It outlaws fusion, and says a general election candidate can only receive the nomination of one party. Thanks to Darryl Perry for this news.
On March 8, the North Carolina legislature passed HB 100. It converts trial judge elections from non-partisan to partisan. Republicans back the idea. The Governor, Roy Cooper, is a Democrat, and he will probably veto the bill. However, North Carolina gubernatorial vetoes can be overridden with a 60% in each house of the legislature, and if there is a veto, it will probably be overridden.
The State Supreme Court and State Appeals Court judicial races are already partisan.
On March 7, the New York Senate Elections Committee passed SB 218, which eliminates residency requirements for candidate petitioners, except that it still requires them to live in New York state.
District residency requirements for petitioners in New York were declared unconstitutional in federal and state court almost ten years ago, and this bill attempts to update the election code to reflect those court decisions.
The Senate Elections Committee on March 7 also passed SB 2792, which removes party logos from general election ballots. This is one step toward making it possible for New York ballots to become more orderly. Currently New York ballot design is so bad, some candidates (always independent candidates, or the nominees of unqualified parties) are in such obscure corners of the ballot, many voters can’t find them.
