On March 4, the West Virginia Senate passed SB 490, which prevents any local government from using ranked choice voting for its own elections. Only two Senators voted “no.”
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On February 28, the Hawaii State House Finance Committee passed HB 134. It lets candidates file their declaration of candidacy and petition electronically.
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Miller v Nelson, 24-854, at its March 21, 2025 conference. This is the lawsuit that challenges virtually all of Texas’ ballot access laws for minor parties and independent candidates.
On February 24, Cornel West filed this brief in U.S. District Court in Ortiz v North Carolina State Board of Elections, e.d., 5:24cv-420. West won injunctive relief last year and he and his party were placed on the ballot. Now he hopes to obtain a ruling that the Board’s actions last year were unconstitutional. That would protect petitioning minor parties in the future from being told that even though the county boards said they had enough valid signatures, the petition would not be honored.
On March 1, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared for the Democratic nomination for Mayor of New York City. The election is in November 2025 and the primaries are in June 2025.
Cuomo is directly responsible for New York’s terrible lack of choices on the November 2024 ballot. New York was the only state in the nation in which Joe Biden and Donald Trump were the only listed candidates. It seems that as he campaigns for Mayor, there will be many opportunities for New York voters to ask him about that, and whether he now regrets his actions.