Maryland Delegates Lily Qi (D-Rockville) and Stuart Schmidt (R-Crofton) have introduced HB 496. It would let independent voters choose a partisan primary ballot, without having to join the party whose primary ballot had been chosen.
Reply
On January 30, the U.S. Supreme Court said it will hear Watson v Republican National Committee, 24-1260, on Monday, March 23. This is the case in which the Fifth Circuit ruled that Mississippi can’t accept postal ballots that arrive later than election day. The Fifth Circuit based its decision on the 1872 federal law that sets congressional election day as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. No other court, and no administrative agency, had ever interpreted that law to mean that all ballots must be in the elections office by federal election day.
Mississippi has always had open primaries. Three legislators have introduced bills to make the state a closed primary state. For some reason, all three have introduced separate bills, even though all three are identical. The bills are SB 2591, SB 2592, and SB 2593.
The Independence Party, a party that is forming in Illinois, hopes to get on the 2026 ballot for statewide office. Its gubernatorial nominee is Gary T. Pierce. The party chair is Richard Whitney, who was the Green Party gubernatorial nominee in 2006. Here is the party’s website.
Chances are it is the only third party that will be petitioning in Illinois this year, unless the ballot access laws are eased. The petitioning window opens in February.
On January 29, California filed this brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Tangipa v Newsom, 25A839. This is the lawsuit over California’s redistricting.