Montana Representative Braxton Mitchell (R-Columbia Falls) has introduced HB 201, to require paid petitioners to wear a badge that says they are being paid and also to give their state of residence. It has many co-sponsors. The bill also says the petitioner must orally tell everyone he or she approaches that he or she is being paid.
Missouri Representative Brad Banderman (R-St. Clair) has introduced HB 367, to restore Missouri government-administered presidential primaries. Those primaries were abolished in 2022. Missouri had been one of the relatively few states that gave presidential primaries to all ballot-qualified parties.
Two identical bills have been introduced in the Maryland legislature to somewhat restrict petitioning for new parties. HB 41 and SB 267 would move the petition deadline from the first Monday in August, to the first Monday in July. Also, the bills would say that if a petition was rejected for not having enough signatures, the group must start all over with a new petition; it couldn’t supplement the original petition. Here is the text. It was introduced at the request of the State Board of Elections.
Eight Maine legislators, all Republicans, have introduced LD 234, which would repeal ranked choice voting for the partisan offices that now use it. Maine uses ranked choice in general elections for President and Congress, but not state office. In primaries, it is also used for both federal and state office.
The sponsors are Senator Richard Bradstreet, and Representatives Richard Campbell, Irene Gifford, Randall Greenwood, Abigail Griffin, Shelley Rudnicki, Michael Soboleski, and Tiffany Strout.
Labor Notes has this article by Steve Early about Dan Osborn. He is a labor union leader who ran for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska in November 2024, as an independent. Democrats did not run anyone. Osborn received 46.65% of the vote in the two-race, which was a higher percentage than any Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Nebraska had received since 2006.
