On January 28, the West Virginia Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB 261, which provides for a June 20 primary for Governor this year, in the special gubernatorial election that will be held in October. If the bill fails to become law, there will be no primary and the three qualified parties will choose a nominee in conventions.
On Friday, January 28, the Montana House defeated HB 130 by a vote of 42-57. This is the bill to provide for all-mail ballots. The outcome was a surprise, because the previous day, the same bill had passed a preliminary vote by a comfortable vote. See this story about the Thursday vote. There don’t seem to be any news stories yet about the Friday vote. Thanks to Mike Fellows for this news. UPDATE: the Montana mainstream press has finally reported this news. For example, see this story.
Connecticut Senator Andrew Maynard (D-Stonington) has introduced Proposed Bill 778, which cuts the number of signatures for statewide and U.S. House candidates, in the general election, down to 1,000 signatures. Current law requires 7,500 signatures for statewide candidates, and signatures equal to 1% for U.S. House candidates, which is always close to 3,000 signatures in midterm years and 2,400 in presidential years. The bill was introduced at the request of the Libertarian Party. In 2008, Connecticut was one of the five states in which the Libertarian Party was unable to place Bob Barr on the ballot. The other states in which Barr didn’t appear were West Virginia (which has since reduced its signature requirement), Louisiana, Maine, and Oklahoma (where a bill is pending to reduce the signature requirement).
Thanks to Marc Montoni for this news.
On January 27, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Rahm Emanuel meets the definition of “resident”, for purposes of running for Mayor in the February 22 election. Two justices did not join in the majority opinion, but they agreed with the outcome. See this story.
Still undecided is a local partisan judicial race in Hamilton County, Ohio. The race is very close and the outcome probably depends on whether almost 200 disputed provisional ballots can be counted. On January 27, the 6th circuit issued an order, generally upholding the U.S. District Court’s order that these ballots should be counted. They were cast by voters who were voting in the wrong precinct, but this was a case when several precincts were voting in the same building, and elections officials caused the error. The case is Hunter v Hamilton County Board of Elections. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
