On May 16, U.S. District Court Judge Charles C. Lovell, a Reagan appointee, struck down two Montana laws that regulate campaign advertising. In both cases, the reason is that the laws are too vague. The case is Lair v Murry, 6:12-12.

One law says: “printed election material that includes information about another candidate’s voting record must include a disclosure of contrasting votes known to have been made by the same candidate on the same issue of closely related in time.” The other law makes it unlawful “for a person to misrepresent a candidate’s public voting record or any other matter that is relevant to the issues of the campaign with knowledge that the assertion is false.”

Gary Johnson’s campaign has released its first video ad, since Johnson obtained the Libertarian presidential nomination. See it here.

On May 17, five members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill to protect certain kinds of voting rights. The lead sponsor is John Lewis of Georgia. His bill, which doesn’t have a bill number yet, is co-sponsored by James Clyburn of South Carolina, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, Robert Brady of Pennsylvania, and John Conyers of Michigan. All are Democrats.

The bill can be seen here. It requires states to permit ex-felons to register to vote in federal elections, and it requires states to provide for election-day registration. It requires states to let individuals to file voter registration forms if they are at least sixteen years old, even though those individuals could not vote until they are 18. The bill requires states to take certain steps to make it easier to register to vote.

The bill is somewhat similar to HR 108, by John Conyers, which was introduced last year but which has not made any headway.