On February 24, the Utah Senate passed SJR 2, which asks Congress to pass a proposed constitutional amendment to repeal the 17th Amendment. The 17th Amendment, which went into effect in 1913, provides that voters choose U.S. Senators. Utah SJR 2 asks that the state legislature regain the power to choose U.S. Senators.

The vote was 20-6, with three Senators not voting. All Democrats voted “No.” All Republicans voted “Yes”, except that Republican Senator Brian Shiozawa voted “No”. The three Senators who didn’t vote are Republicans: Curtis Bramble, Lyle Hillyard, and Stephen Urquhart.

Supporters of this idea appear ignorant that, before the 17th amendment, state legislatures frequently deadlocked on choice of a U.S. Senator, so that a state sometimes went unrepresented for at least one of its U.S. Senate seats up to a year. Also, supporters of SJR 2 appear not to know that before the 17th amendment, prospective U.S. Senators were frequently found to have bribed state legislators. Thanks to Ken Bush for the news.

On February 25, the Nebraska Secretary of State announced that he is putting two Democrats, five Republicans, and five Libertarians on presidential primary ballots automatically. Those not chosen are free to submit a petition with 300 signatures of party members. See this story. The Democrats are Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The Republicans are Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Marco Rubio, and Donald Trump. The Libertarians are Marc Feldman, Gary Johnson, Steve Kerbel, John McAfee, and Austin Petersen.

The law directs the Secretary of State to place candidates on the ballot who are mentioned in news media. The primary is May 10.

Although Nebraska only has three qualified parties now, other parties can still get on the ballot if they submit a petition of 5,395 signatures by August 1. But such newly-qualifying parties would nominate by convention and would not have a primary or a presidential primary.

Indiana State Representative Jeff Ellington (R-Bloomington) says next year he will introduce a bill to reduce the number of signatures, and the distribution requirement, for candidates to get on the primary ballot for President, Governor, and U.S. Senator (primary candidates for other office in Indiana don’t need any petitions). See this story.