The British Parliament is about to debate whether to let some prisoners vote. See this article. It seems likely that those serving sentences of one year or less may be permitted to vote.
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On February 8, the Voting Rights Section of the U.S. Justice Department approved two election law changes from California and Louisiana. Both states are under section five of the Voting Rights Act. The Department approved California’s redistricting commission for U.S. House elections, a change made by the voters last year. Also the Department approved switching Louisiana congressional elections from closed or semi-closed primaries, to a top-two system in which the first round is in November. Louisiana had used a top-two system for congressional elections between 1978 and 2006 as well, but the legislature had changed it in 2006 to a closed or semi-closed system. Then, in 2010, the legislature changed it back again.
On February 8, the Virginia House of Delegates passed HB 1843 unanimously. It moves the presidential primary from early February to early March, in accordance with the wishes of the national Democratic and national Republican Parties. Unfortunately the version of the bill that passed does not lower the number of signatures for candidates in presidential primaries from 10,000 to 5,000. Virginia will continue to be the only state that requires all candidates in presidential primaries to submit a petition greater than 5,000 signatures.
Another bill that did reduce the number of signatures, and also moved the primary from February to March, is not the bill that the House passed.
Washington state Representative Christopher Hurst (D-Enumclaw) has introduced HB 1860. It says that political party committeemembers should run for office on the presidential primary ballot. Last month, a U.S. District Court had ruled that forcing political parties to elect their committeemembers at the top-two primary violates freedom of association, because states cannot force political parties to let outsiders choose their party officers.
At the Washington state presidential primary, held in February, each major party has its own separate presidential primary ballot, and voters must sign in as members of one of those particular parties in order to participate. Thus, the constitutional infirmity is cured if party officers are elected at the presidential primary.
The bill also cancels the presidential primary unless both major parties agree, no later than September 1 of the year before the presidential election, to choose all of their national convention delegates at the presidential primary. Thanks to Josh Putnam for news about this bill.
On February 3, California State Senator Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro) introduced SB 168, which makes it a crime for anyone to pay anyone else to circulate an initiative, referendum or recall petition, if the circulator is being paid per signature, “directly or indirectly.” The penalty for the person who pays is a fine of up to $25,000 and one year in prison. The penalty for the circulator is a fine up to $1,000 and up to six months in prison.