On February 26, the Missouri House Elections Committee passed HB 367. It restores presidential primaries in Missouri, for all qualified parties. Missouri had no presidential primaries in 2024.
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The Kansas State Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs has introduced SCR 1611. It would bring about popular non-partisan elections for State Supreme Court Justice. Currently the Governor appoints justices from a list prepared by a non-partisan commission.
A group of New Jersey primary candidates are expected to sue New Jersey over the legislature’s violation of due process. It increased the petitioning requirements and made the higher requirements effective for the 2025 election, right in the middle of petitioning season. There are uncontradicted court precedents that states can’t do that.
On February 26, the New Jersey State Appeals Court said that the State Constitution does not protect the right of two political parties to jointly nominate the same candidate. In re Tom Malinowski Petition for Nomination for General Election, A-3542-21. See this Election Law Blog post.
On February 25, the Ninth Circuit ruled 2-1 that Arizona can’t require voters who use the federal Voter Registration form to attach copies of a birth certificate or a certificate of naturalization. Mi Familia Vota v Fontes, 24-3188.
Arizona acknowledged that voters who use the federal form don’t need such documents to vote for Congress, but said they can’t vote for President without such documents. Arizona argued that the U.S. Constitution lets Congress pass election laws that govern congressional elections, as Congress had done when it passed the National Voter Registration Act, setting up federal voter registration forms. But Arizona insisted that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t let Congress pass laws regulating presidential elections.
Arizona’s attitude is a sharp departure from almost 100 years of precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court that Congress can regulate presidential elections. As long ago as 1934, Congress upheld federal campaign finance laws affecting presidential elections. In 1970 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Oregon v Mitchell that Congress even had the authority to set the voting age at 18 for presidential and congressional elections.
The decision is by Judge Ronald Gould, a Clinton appointee. It is also signed by Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw, another Clinton appointee. The opinion is 79 pages. The dissent, by Trump appointee Patrick Bumatay, is 77 pages. There are other issues in the case also, all relating to voter registration.