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On June 3, the Latvian Parliament chose Raimonds Vejonis to be the new President of Latvia. See this story. He is apparently the first Green Party politician to become head of state of any nation.
On June 18, Thursday, a U.S. District Court will hear Libertarian Party of New Hampshire v Gardner, 1:14cv-322. This is the case that challenges the 2014 law that makes it illegal to circulate the party petition during an odd year. The hearing is at 10:30 am in Concord. The federal courthouse is at 55 Pleasant Street.
As has been previously reported, this year the Oklahoma legislature finally passed some improvements in ballot access for newly-qualifying parties, and Governor Mary Fallin signed it the day after she received it.
The legislative session ended last month, and the ballot access bill, HB 2181, is one of only six bills on election law that passed this year. Furthermore, three of them are still on the Governor’s desk for her action.
Besides ballot access, the two bills that have been signed are SB 313, letting voters register on-line; and SB 173, which lets notaries public notarize up to 100 absentee ballot requests. All three of the election law bills that have already been signed were recommended by the Oklahoma Policy Institute.
The other three election law bills that passed, but which the Governor hasn’t acted on, are: SB 312, consolidating local election dates to just four per year; SB 114, which helps election officials keep the voter registration list up-to-date; and SB 849, which exempts some employees of the State Election Board from civil service.
The only election law bill that the Oklahoma Policy Institute recommended, but which did not pass, is SB 315, to set up a roster of permanent absentee voters.
On June 2, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval said he would sign SB 499, which moves the petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties and non-presidential independent candidates to June. The old law required non-presidential independent candidates to file their petitions by February, and new party petitions were due in April. This good result is a consequence of the Green Party’s lawsuit filed on April 18, 2014, Green Party of Nevada v Miller, 3:14cv-210. The case had been on hold while both sides had waited to see if the legislature would improve the deadlines voluntarily.
UPDATE: Governor Sandoval actually signed the bill on June 10.
Nevada law still requires candidates to file declarations of candidacy early in the year, but now they have more time to finish their petitions. The 2016 petition for newly-qualifying parties requires 5,431 signatures.