New York Assemblymember Amy Paulin (D-Scarsdale) has introduced A560, which would use ranked choice voting for president, in general elections.
4
New Mexico State Senators Katy Duhigg and Heather Berghmons have introduced an omnibus election law bill, SB 218. One of the provisions allows petition signatures to be collected electronically. However that provision only applies to petitions to recognize a new party; it doesn’t pertain to candidate petitions.
Ten New Hampshire Representatives have introduced HB 327, which makes it easier for candidates to file for the primary. Such candidaes don’t need a petition, but they do need to file a declaration of candidacy. The bill says that if the candidate lives in a town in which the town clerk’s office is open fewer than three days per week, or is open fewer than 18 hours per week, the candidate can instead file with the Secretary of State.
The bill also says that town clerks can accept declarations of candidacy even if the form has not been notarized.
For consistency and fairness, the bill ought to include similar provisions for independent candidates.
Nebraska State Senator Rita Sanders (R-Bellevue) has introduced LB 521. It moves the non-presidential independent candidate petition deadline from September 1 to August 1. Existing law already has the presidential independent petition deadline on August 1. It has long been an oddity that non-presidential independents had a later deadline that presidential independents.
On January 31, the Montana House State Administration Committee passed HB 207, which increases the petition requirement for independent legislative candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties from 5% of the winning candidate’s vote in the last election, to 10% of the same base. Furthermore, only active registered voters could sign. Current law lets inactive voters sign. Also the bill shrinks the petitioning period, by changing the start date from January 9 to February 19. See this story.
The bill would be unconstitutional. No federal court has ever upheld a candidate petition requirement in excess of 5% of the number of registered voters. All of the independent petition requirements that were ever in excess of 5% have been struck down. Courts in Arkansas, Illinois, North Carolina, and Ohio issued those opinions.
Montana could not argue that the ballot is crowded with two many legislative candidates. Last year, out of 100 State House races, only one independent was on the ballot. Ironically, the author of the bill is the only House member who faced an independent opponent.
For a full list of all decisions that have struck down requirements on the basis that they required too many signatures, see the April 1, 2016 print copy of Ballot Access News. Since that issue was published, there have been more such decisions, in Arkansas, Michigan, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
The original bill increased the petition requirement to 15% of the winner’s vote, and applied to all non-presidential candidates, not just legislative candidates.