On May 13, the Pennsylvania House passed HB 1396 by 102-101. Among other things, it removes the requirement that voters who vote by mail must add the date of mailing to the outer envelope. It also makes it easier to vote early. However, the bill is not likely to pass the State Senate.
On April 4, Idaho Governor Brad Little signed SB 1157. It changes the law for independent presidential candidate petitions. The petitions no longer need to include the vice-presidential nominee. Instead, after the petition is submitted and approved, the independent presidential candidate notifies the Secretary of State of the identity of the vice presidential candidate by September 1.
This bill only came into existence because Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., had sued. The lawsuit is still pending but it is likely it will now be dismissed.
On May 1, the Hawaii legislature passed HB 134. It allows candidates to file electronically.
On May 12, the Republican National Committee filed this reply brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Republican National Committee v Genser, 24-786. The Republican Party is trying to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling of the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court. The Pennsylvania State Supreme Court had ruled that if a postal ballot is rejected because the outer envelope lacked a date, then the voter who case that invalid ballot can vote provisionally at the polls.
The Republican Party argues the State Supreme Court had no authority to make such a ruling, because the U.S. Constitution doesn’t permit state courts to play a role in determining what the rules should be for federal elections, and that only a state legislature can do that.
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Meadors v Erie County Board of Elections, 24-684, on Thursday, May 15. This will be the third time the Court has considered whether to hear this case. The case arose as a challenge to the May independent petition deadline. But the Second Circuit said the case was moot because the election was over, so now it has become more fundamentally about whether constitutional ballot access cases are moot just because the election is over. In 1969 the U.S. Supreme Court said such cases are not moot.
