Ruth Marcus, a renowned Washington Post columnist, has this column, suggesting that Arizona’s public funding program, implemented in 1998, has had the effect of electing more conservatives to the legislature than would otherwise be the case.

The column does not say, but others have said, that the public funding program, which requires candidates to obtain $5 contributions from a specified number of donors, has helped candidates who are members of large churches. Social connections between church members make it more likely for candidates who are church members to find enough people willing to contribute the needed $5, and therefore easier for them to qualify for public funding. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

On May 4, six U.S. Senators introduced a bill to require the states to let any voter vote by mail. The bill only pertains to federal elections. They also introduced a second bill to provide grants to states to help pay for the program. See this press release. The bill doesn’t have a bill number yet.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, one of the six, also introduced his own bill to require the states to set up methods by which unregistered persons may register to vote on-line. The federal government already requires states to use postcard registration forms, although that law doesn’t apply to states that let voters register at the polls on election day. Thus there is already considerable precedent for the federal government to legislative in this area, although the federal laws only relate to federal elections. Wyden’s on-line voter registration bill does not yet have a bill number.

On May 3, U.S. House member Christopher Van Hollen, Jr., asked the U.S. Supreme Court not to expedite the lawsuit Republican National Committee v Federal Election Commission, 09-1287. The three-page response is here. The case concerns the contribution limit to national committees of political parties. The Republican Party had filed this lawsuit in 2008 in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and lost in that court on March 26, 2010. The party has been hoping that its direct appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court could be heard in time to affect this year’s election, assuming that the party wins the case.

Representative Van Hollen, a Democrat, had intervened in the case, on the side of the FEC. In this recent filing, he asks that the U.S. Supreme Court not expedite the case.