On June 13, the Rhode Island legislature passed SB 346/HB 5575, the National Popular Vote Plan bill. The plan had actually passed in the last session, but the Governor had vetoed it. Rhode Island’s current Governor, Lincoln Chafee, says he supports the Plan.
Assuming it is signed into law in Rhode Island, the plan will have passed in ten jurisdictions. The others are California, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, and Washington.
On June 13, a Gallup Poll was released, showing that only 10% of U.S. residents have faith in the United States Congress. Gallup says in the entire history of polling, no institution listed in such a poll has ever had such a low favorability rating. See this story. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
The Star-Tribune of Casper, Wyoming, in this editorial, suggests that the state’s procedures for initiatives and referenda are too difficult, although the editorial also warns that procedures should not be made too easy.
On June 7, the South Carolina Republican Party withdrew from its own lawsuit, filed in 2010, to let the party exclude non-Republicans from voting in its primary. The case still has the Greenville County Republican Party as a plaintiff, but it is not clear that a county party has standing to challenge the law that lets all voters vote in any party’s primary. The case is Greenville County Republican Party v State of South Carolina, 6:10cv-1407.
On June 8, the state chair of the South Carolina Republican Party, Chad Connelly, resigned, even though he had been elected just a few months ago. It seems likely that the change in the party’s state chair may have something to do with the party’s change of mind about fighting the open primary. The new state chair, Matt Moore, is 31 years old and is believed to be the youngest state chair of a major party in the U.S. Thanks to Mike Drucker for the news.
On June 12, a Michigan Circuit Court removed Mike Duggan from the August ballot. Duggan is a candidate for Mayor of Detroit and is considered someone who has the potential to win the election, if he can get back on the ballot.
The Detroit charter requires candidates to have been registered to vote in the city for at least one year before filing to get on the ballot. Duggan registered to vote in Detroit on April 16, 2012. The petition deadline was May 14. Duggan had finished collecting his signatures early, so he turned them in on April 2, even though he was free to have turned them in later than that. If he had waited until April 16, there would have been no problem. He has appealed the decision to the State Court of Appeals. He argues that the intent of the law was that candidates must have been registered to vote for a year before the filing deadline. UPDATE: see this commentary about the issue.
