Mississippi State Senator Jeremy England has again introduced a bill to restore the initiative process. SC 518 would require a petition signed by 10% of the registered voters. One year would be allowed to collect the signatures.
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New Mexico Representative Matthew McQueen (D-Santa Fe) has introduced HB 135. It would ease ballot access. It lowers the minor party nominee petition, and the independent candidate petition (for office other than president) from 2% of the last vote cast, to 1%. It also removes the prohibition on voters signing for more than a single candidate for the same office. Finally, for primary petitions, it lets independent voters sign.
The bill does not affect the number of signatures for an independent presidential candidate, which would continue to be one-half of 1% of the last vote cast for Governor.
The New Mexico Forward Party is likely to run Ken Gallegos Miyagishima for Governor this year. See this story. He is the former Mayor of Las Cruces. Some ballot access details in the story are not accurate.
Recently, the Wyoming House Committee that handles election law bills introduced HB 54. It raises the number of signatures for all independent candidates from 2% of the last U.S. House vote to 5% of the last U.S. House vote. It moves the petition deadline from August to early June. It says no one can be an independent candidate unless he or she is a registered independent.
Already, Wyoming has the highest petition percentage of any state for president, when the easier method (independent or new party) is used for the comparison. Wyoming only had three presidential candidates on the ballot in 2024. And even though Wyoming permits write-in votes, it refuses to tally them.
The bill, if enacted, would probably be held unconstitutional. The deadline would be too early. Also it probably would be held unconstitutional that Wyoming was now requiring substantially more signatures for an independent candidate than for an entire new party. The party petition is 2% of the last vote cast for U.S. House and the bill does not affect party petitions.
On January 30, Congressmember Bryan Steil (R-Wisconsin) introduced HR 7300. It would ban ranked choice voting in federal general elections. It has many other provisions as well, including a requirement that voters in federal elections must show photo ID in order to vote at the polls. For postal ballots, a photocopy of ID must be enclosed, although overseas military are exempt.
The bill has 24 co-sponsors, all Republicans.
The bill seems to be worded so as to prevent individuals for voting for a slate of presidential electors. It says, “Sec. 305. A State may not carry out a general election for federal office in the State using a voting system that permits a voter to vote for more than one candidate for the same office.” But in all fifty states, current law provides that a voter may cast a vote for multiple candidates for presidential elector. Even Maine and Nebraska allow all voters to vote for two at-large candidates for presidential elector.