On March 13, the Texas House Elections Committee passed HB 25, the bill to eliminate the straight-ticket device. The five Republicans on the committee voted “yes”; the two Democrats voted “no.”

Many witnesses testified in favor of the bill. Election officials from several large counties pointed out problems caused by the straight-ticket device. Some voters use the straight-ticket device but then vote for an individual nominee from the same party, just to emphasize that they want to vote for that individual. But that action actually erases the effect of the straight ticket device for that one particular nominee, which causes the voter to not vote for that race.

The League of Independent Voters, the Libertarian Party, and the Green Party testified for the bill. The only two groups that testified against it were the Democratic Party and the NAACP. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.

On March 9, the Utah legislature passed HB 204. It says in future presidential years, Utah will hold presidential primaries. The bill does not include details such as how candidates get on the ballot, or when the primary will be, or whether all qualified parties are included. Those will be fleshed out in next year’s legislature session.

On March 14, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the request of attorneys for the state of Montana to delay their filing in Ravalli County Republican Party v McCulloch. The state’s response had been due March 16, but now the government has until April 17.

This extension will delay the parallel Hawaii Democratic Party case as well. The U.S. Supreme Court is treating the two pending cert petitions as a unit. In both cases, the lower courts rejected attempts by the major parties to prevent members of other parties from voting in their primaries.