On February 17, the Montana Senate passed SB 169 by a vote of 48-2. It deals with vacancies in U.S. Senate seats. If there is a U.S. Senate vacancy, there would be a special election, in most cases. Before the special election, the Governor could appoint someone to serve until the special election is held. The gubernatorial appointee must be of the same party as the party that won that same seat in the last regular election. Furthermore, the Governor would be required to appoint one of three individuals suggested by that party’s executive committee. Thanks to Mike Fellows for this news.

Texas Representative Jason Villalba (R-Dallas) has introduced HB 1444. It deals with the straight-ticket device. It says that in counties with a population of over 1,000,000, the straight-ticket device would not encompass partisan candidates for judicial office and county executive office.

This bill seems to be a compromise between the idea of eliminating the straight-ticket device, and keeping it. Another bill, HB 1288, would simply eliminate the device. Texas elects its judges in partisan races, and although many Republicans in the legislature seem to want to keep the device, they are bothered by the fact that the device makes it difficult for Republican judges to be elected or re-elected in Dallas County, because Dallas County has become a stronghold for the Democratic Party (in November 2012, Dallas County cast 405,571 votes for President Obama and 295,813 votes for Mitt Romney).

It seems that if the bill were enacted, it might be found to violate Bush v Gore, since it would apply to some counties and not others. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.

The Washington Secretary of State, Kim Wyman, is trying to persuade the legislature to pass SB 5978. See this story. The bill moves the presidential primary from May to the second Tuesday in March. It also requires the major parties to reveal by November of the year before the election whether they will make use of their presidential primaries, or whether caucuses will choose delegates. Although the presidential primary law has been in the books for several decades, the state didn’t hold presidential primaries in 2012 because both major parties used caucuses instead.

SB 5978 also provides that voters would need to declare a party preference in order to vote in a presidential primary.