According to this story, an Oklahoma State Senate leader predicted that the Oklahoma House will not pass the National Popular Vote Plan bill, even though that bill did pass the State Senate easily earlier this month. The Oklahoma Republican Party officially opposes the idea, and party leaders were apparently surprised that the bill even passed the State Senate, and mobilized against its further progress. It is interesting that Oklahoma Republican leaders seem resigned to the idea that the Democratic Party will win the 2016 presidential election.

The Third Circuit will hear Constitution Party of Pennsylvania v Aichele on March 4, Tuesday, at 1 p.m., in Philadelphia. The Courthouse is at 6th and Market Streets, and the courtroom is on the 19th floor. The issue is whether Pennsylvania’s unique petition challenge system, which subjects petitioning groups to court costs of as much as $110,000 if their statewide petition doesn’t have enough valid signatures, is constitutional. The lower court had ruled that the Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties don’t have standing, even though in 2012 both the Constitution and Libertarian Party statewide petitions were challenged.

The three judges are Jane Roth, Kent Jordan, and Thomas Ambro. All three happen to be from Delaware. The Third Circuit covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

Arizona Representative John Kavnagh (R-Fountain Hills) has introduced HB 2651, which adds a new funding source for the state’s public funding of campaigns program, and which adds some more uses for the program. Here is the text of the bill.

The bill restores an option on the state income tax form for a taxpayer to send $5 to the public funding program. The money would come from the state treasury, not from the taxpayer. The extra money would be used for: (1) new vote-counting equipment; (2) adding 250-word candidate statements to the web page of the agency that runs the public funding program, and pictures of the candidate; (3) paying for state officeholders to send mailings to constituents, although not during the period 90 days before the primary and 90 days before the general election. The provision for candidate statements includes congressional candidates.