For over twenty years, Maine has had public financing for candidates for Governor and state legislature. The elections committees recently heard a bill that would delete gubernatorial elections from the program. See this story.
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The U.S. Supreme Court had the Republican lawsuit against the Montana open primary system, and the Democratic lawsuit against the Hawaii open primary system, at its conference on Friday, February 17. When the results of that conference were mostly revealed, on February 21, no action had been taken on either of those two cases. They will be re-listed for future U.S. Supreme Court conferences. The next conference is February 24.
On February 21, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Sarvis v Alcorn, 16-781. The lower court had upheld Virginia’s law that says the nominees of qualified parties always appear at the top of the general election ballot. The Virginia Libertarian Party had brought the case.
The New Mexico Senate met on Presidents Day, February 20, and passed the National Popular Vote Plan bill, SB 42. The vote was 26-16. All Democrats voted for the bill and all Republicans voted against it.
On February 14, Jill Stein and various Pennsylvania voters amended their Complaint in the lawsuit filed last year against Pennsylvania, over the state’s cumbersome procedures for anyone to request a recount. The case is Stein v Cortes, e.d., 2:16cv-6287. It’s a very interesting amended complaint and it attacks Pennsylvania’s vote-counting equipment.