On March 6, the Idaho House passed HB 197, and on March 13, the Senate State Affairs Committee passed it. It changes procedures for special U.S. House elections. The current law was written in 1899 and has never been used, because Idaho has never had a vacancy in its U.S. House delegation. The existing law seems to require a non-partisan special election.
The bill changes that to a normal partisan election, with a special primary followed by a special general election.
North Carolina Representative Harry Warren, a Republican, has introduced HB 193. It changes the terms of state legislators from two years to four years. It also includes term limits of three terms.
On March 11, the New Mexico Judiciary Committee tabled HB 206. This is the bill that would have required parties with primaries to let independents vote in those primaries. Apparently the bill was written to also allow members of unqualified parties to vote in major party primaries, and that bothered some legislators. See this story.
Here is the text of Texas HB 3068, which eases ballot access for independent candidates and minor parties. It was introduced last week but the text wasn’t available at first.
On March 9, the Arizona House Government Committee passed SB 1307 unanimously. It changes the deadline for parties to file their presidential elector candidates from June to late August. The bill had already passed the Senate.
