A special session of the North Carolina legislature is making headway drawing up new U.S. House district boundaries. See this story. On February 17 the new maps were unveiled and approved by a legislative committee. Both houses will vote on the bill on Thursday, February 18. Thanks to Brian Irving for this news.
U.S. District Court John Woodcock, Jr., will hear the Maine Libertarian Party ballot access case on March 31 at 10 a.m. He might have set an earlier date, but the state chairman of the party is not in Maine during the first half of March, and he will be a witness. The case is Libertarian Party of Maine v Dunlap, 2:16cv-2.
On February 17, the Oklahoma Senate Rules Committee unanimously passed SB 1108, which removes the names of candidates for presidential elector from the November ballot. The only other states that still print the names of presidential elector candidates on the ballot are Arizona, Idaho, North Dakota, and South Dakota. None of those states let voters vote for individual candidates for presidential elector, so the information isn’t very meaningful. The Oklahoma bill says the names of the candidates for presidential elector will be posted at the polling place. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.
The same committee also passed SB 1016. It provides that the names of qualified parties should no longer be printed on voter registration forms. Instead there would only be a blank line for the question about political party membership. This bill is probably motivated by the desire to avoid having to reprint the voter registration forms every time a new party becomes qualified or ceases to be qualified.
On February 8, Shawn Wilmoth, who has been hired to collect signatures to place Rocky De La Fuente on the Democratic presidential primary ballots in many states, filed a federal lawsuit against the Connecticut law that bars out-of-state circulators for primary petitions. Wilmoth lives in Michigan. The case is Wilmoth v Merrill, 3:16cv-223.
De La Fuente needs 7,039 signatures to be collected from February 16 through March 4. Only registered Democrats may sign. This is a difficult petition requirement. Because the petitioning period has already started, the lawsuit is being expedited. The state’s response is due February 22, and the reply brief is due February 24. The hearing is February 25, on Wilmoth’s request for injunctive relief. The case is assigned to Judge Janet C. Hall, the same judge who enjoined the out-of-state ban on out-of-state circulators for general election petitions last month.
On February 17, the Oklahoma State Senate Rules Committee unanimously passed SB 896, which eases the definition of “Political party” from a group that polled 10% for the office at the top of the ballot in the last election, to one that polled 2.5% for such offices. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.
The Senate Rules Committee has eleven members, and the Senate only has 48 members, so the fact that all eleven Senators on the Rules Committee voted for the bill is a good indication that the bill is likely the pass the full Senate.
