Six Georgia legislators have introduced HR 273, which asks Congress to repeal the 17th Amendment. The 17th Amendment, which went into effect in 1914, created popular elections for U.S. Senators. Before the 17th Amendment, state legislators chose U.S. Senators.

The six sponsors are Representatives Buzz Brockaway, Kevin Cooke, Mike Dudgeon, Delvis Dutton, Josh Clark, and Dustin Hightower.

On February 15, two Virginia ballot access improvements made headway.

SB 1049, which says that inactive voters may sign candidate petitions, passed the House Privileges and Elections Committee. The bill had already passed the Senate. The bill also sets up appeal procedures when the candidate is told his or her petition lacks enough valid signatures.

SB 690, which reduces the number of signatures for all presidential candidates (both those running in a presidential primary, and those attempting to get on the November ballot) from 10,000 to 5,000, passed the House Privileges and Elections Committee. This bill had also already passed the Senate.

Finally, the Senate amended HB 1346, a bill that originally only reduced the number of signatures for presidential primary candidates and which had already passed the House. The Senate amended HB 1346 to include general election presidential candidates as well. Then the Senate passed it, 27-12. At this point, SB 690 and HB 1346 are now identical, and it won’t make any difference which one is finally passed. Both the House Committee, and the full Senate, have now expressed themselves as favoring reducing the number of signatures for all presidential candidates, primary and general alike. It seems very likely that one or the other of these two identical bills will soon be on the Governor’s desk.