Nebraska Governor Won’t Call Special Legislative Session to Alter Electoral Vote Elections

Posted on by September 24, 2024
22

On September 24, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen said he will not call a special session of the legislature to alter the way Nebraska elects presidential electors. Nebraska and Maine are the only two states that let each U.S. House district elect their own elector. The Governor wanted to covert Nebraska to the system used by the other 48 states, but he said there isn’t enough support in the legislature to make the change this year. Although the idea of switching to the system used by 48 states has a majority in the legislature, he predicts there would be a filibuster against the bill and so it couldn’t pass.

Georgia Supreme Court Likely to Rule that Independent Presidential Candidates Can’t Petition for Themselves, Only Presidential Elector Candidates Can Circulate a Petition

Posted on by September 24, 2024
16

UPDATE: On September 24, the Georgia Supreme Court heard the case on whether independent presidential candidates need petitions from each candidate for presidential elector. If so, the petitions for Claudia De la Cruz and Cornel West are invalid, even though both candidates followed the advice of the Secretary of State. West v Wittenstein, S25A0178.

The oral argument went badly for the two candidates, but there is no decision yet. An earlier version of this post erroneously said the two candidates had already lost.

Some Georgia ballots have already been printed with those presidential candidates’ names on the ballot.

In the past, independent presidential candidates did petition for themselves in Georgia, and their presidential elector candidates did not petition. But the law was re-worded in 2017. The law is very murky but the plaintiff parties could not point to past practice in Georgia, because the new law is different from the old law.

The last states that required individual candidates for presidential elector to submit their own petitions were Minnesota and Wisconsin, but both states reformed their process over 70 years ago.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Put Him on New York Ballot

Posted on by September 23, 2024
56

On September 21, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put him on the ballot. Team Kennedy v Berger, 24A285. He had been kept off, even though he had enough valid signatures, because he put an address on his declaration of candidacy that was questioned.

Here is the filing. He filed it only three days after he lost in the Second Circuit. The U.S. On September 23, the Supreme Court has asked for a response by Wednesday, September 25.

In a somewhat similar Nevada Green Party ballot access appeal, the Green Party took seven days to file in the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Nevada Democratic Party and the Secretary of State of Nevada criticized the Green Party for taking that long.