On February 25, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Danielczyk v U.S., 12-579. The Fourth Circuit had upheld the federal law that makes it illegal for corporations to make campaign contributions, and the U.S. Supreme Court won’t disturb the Fourth Circuit ruling.
On February 22, the Ohio Supreme Court forwarded all the evidence collected in O’Farrell v Landis, 2012-2151, to the Clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives. O’Farrell v Landis is an election contest over which candidate won the 98th district House race last November. The Ohio House will now proceed to decide which candidate should be seated. The official election returns show that Republican Al Landis won by eight votes over Democrat Josh O’Farrell, but O’Farrell has presented evidence which he believes shows that the returns are faulty. Under the Ohio Constitution, each house of the legislature is the judge of contested elections for itself. The Ohio House has not been asked to adjudicate an election contest in over 100 years, although the Ohio Senate has done that in more recent years.
On February 19, the North Dakota Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB 2183. The original bill said that no one who has not lived in North Dakota for three years is permitted to circulate an initiative petition. The Committee amended the bill to two years, and passed the bill. Now it goes to the full Senate.
The Connecticut Joint Government Administration and Elections Committee will hear SB 432 on February 25. This is the National Popular Vote Plan bill. It is sponsored by three Democratic State Senators, Gary LeBeau, Andrew Maynard, and Steve Cassano.
On February 15, the Virginia legislature passed HB 2147. It requires parties that nominate by primary to check the validity of petitions, when candidates file to appear on a party primary ballot. In Virginia, primary candidates file their petitions with their party, not with government election officials. In the past, sometimes the major parties simply assumed petitions were valid if they contained more than the required number of signatures.
