On March 25, the Washington legislature passed SB 5124, which requires all counties to abolish voting at the polls (except that each county could keep one voting center for voters who don’t wish to vote by mail). The existing law let each county decide for itself, but every county in Washington except Pierce County was already voting entirely by mail. See this story.
On November 2, 2010, the voters of Florida passed two redistricting reform measures, one for U.S. House districts and one for state legislative. They said that although the legislature would continue to draw the boundaries of these districts, the legislature was forbidden from drawing the boundaries for partisan advantage.
On March 30, the Florida legislature finally sent these measures to the U.S. Justice Department, Voting Rights Section, for pre-clearance. The Governor had refused to send them in, prompting a lawsuit. But then various units of state government decided that it was the legislature’s duty, not the Governor’s duty, to send them to the federal government, and that step has been taken. See this story.
On March 30, a subcommittee of the Tennessee House passed HB 794, which changes the procedure for a new party to qualify for the ballot. It moves the deadline from March to early April, and deletes the wording on the petition that implies that the signers are members of the party. But it retains the requirement that the petition needs 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote, which is now approximately 40,000 valid signatures.
Representative Mike Turner (D-Old Hickory), a member of the subcommittee, said the procedure is still too difficult, and said he would propose an amendment to make it easier when the bill is heard in the full House Committee next week. Witnesses were not allowed to testify today, but they will be allowed to testify in full committee next week. The subcommittee had 50 bills to handle at this meeting.
On March 30, U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs, an Obama appointee, turned aside the Republican Party lawsuit against South Carolina’s open primary as applied to the Republican Party. The outcome was not too surprising, because South Carolina is in the 4th circuit, and the 4th circuit ruled earlier in a Virginia case that if a party has a choice of whether to nominate by primary or convention, and it chooses a primary, it must follow the state election law on who can participate. Like Virginia, South Carolina lets all parties decide whether to nominate by primary or convention.
However, the Republican Party had also argued that it isn’t truly free to choose to nominate by primary, because another state law says the party can’t nominate by convention unless 3/4ths of the delegates agree. However, the judge upheld the 3/4ths law as well. Here is the 25-page decision. The name of the case is The Greenville County Republican Party v State of South Carolina, 6:10-cv-1407. Thanks to Harry Kresky for the link.
On March 30, U.S. District Court Judge Otis Wright denied injunctive relief to Michael Chamness, a candidate for U.S. House in the May 2011 special election, 36th district. His 19-page order is here. He said that there is not enough evidence that Chamness is injured by the state’s failure to let him have his party on the ballot, and also not enough evidence that Chamness is injured by not being allowed “Independent” either.
No precedent supports the idea that “independent” can be banned for candidates who seek that label. The 6th circuit, and the Supreme Courts of Massachusetts and Minnesota, have all ruled in the past that “independent” cannot be banned from the ballot. The case is Chamness v Bowen, U.S. District Court, Los Angeles, 2:11-cv-1479. Chamness will appeal to the 9th circuit.
Republicans control state government in both Wisconsin and Ohio, and in both states, bills have passed to limit collective bargaining for government employees. Wisconsin does not have the referendum or initiative, so people who are unhappy with Wisconsin’s new law must resort to demonstrations and recall petitions. By contrast, Ohio has the referendum and the initiative, and labor is about to launch a petition drive to repeal the new law. See this story, which suggests that Ohio is more fortunate than Wisconsin.
