As reported earlier, a Kansas lower state court recently ruled that the Secretary of State has no authority to keep two lists of registered voters, one group which used the state voter registration form and can vote in all elections; and another group that used the federal voter registration form and can only vote for federal office. See this story. Instead, the Seretary of State says he may appeal the decision.
On January 21, U.S. District Court Judge Janet C. Hall heard Libertarian Party of Connecticut v Merrill, 3:15cv-1851. This is the case on Connecticut’s ban on out-of-state circulators. The hearing lasted approximately 90 minutes. A decision is expected in a few weeks.
Constitutional election law cases filed by minor parties or independent candidates are pending in 18 states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. The ACLU is representing the plaintiffs in five of those cases: California, Connecticut, Georgia, New Hampshire, and South Dakota. The ACLU is easily the most important champion of voting rights for voters who want to vote for minor party and independent candidates. Everyone who cares about those issues should support the ACLU.
The Idaho Senate State Affairs Committee is sponsoring SB 1195. It abolishes write-ins in party primaries. It also says that if someone wants to vote in a party primary but that person is registered in another party, that voter must switch three and one-half months before the primary. Current law makes the deadline two and one-half months before the primary. The bill would have no effect on independent voters, who are free to join a party at the polls on primary day.
The bill’s sponsors want the bill to take effect for the May 2016 primary. The May 2016 primary is not a presidential primary, but is the primary for all other office.
Bills for the National Popular Vote Plan have been introduced in both houses of the Arizona legislature. They are HB 2456 and SB 1218. Amazingly, two-thirds of members of the legislature are co-sponsoring the bills, making it extremely likely they will pass. Arizona will then be the first state with a Republican majority in both houses of the legislature to have passed the plan.
The March 8 Mississippi presidential primary will list four Democrats: Hillary Clinton, Rocky De La Fuente, Martin O’Malley, and Bernie Sanders.
