On February 15, the Vermont Senate Government Operations Committee passed SB 31, the National Popular Vote Plan bill. This appears to be the first instance in 2011 in which a National Popular Vote Plan bill has moved ahead, in any state’s legislature. The legislature had passed the same bill in 2008 but it had been vetoed. Vermont has a different Governor now and if the bill reaches his desk, he is expected to sign it.
Oklahoma HB 1058, which lowers the number of signatures for a new or previously unqualified party from 5% of the last vote cast, to exactly 5,000 signatures, has a hearing in the House Rules Committee on February 16. The Committee will hear many bills, and meets at approximately 10:30 a.m.
Not every bill automatically gets a hearing in Oklahoma, so this is good news for the bill. The Committee won’t actually make a decision on the day of the hearing. Thanks to Angelia O’Dell for this news.
Rob Richie has this article in the Huffington Post. Although the column at first seems to be a thoughtful commentary about bills in state legislatures requiring voters at the polls to show government photo-ID, the real point of the column comes at the end. Richie makes the case for Congressman Jesse Jackson’s proposed constitutional amendment, affirming the right to vote for adult U.S. citizens. Jackson has repeatedly introduced the amendment in past sessions of Congress, and will re-introduce it again shortly. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On February 14, the New York Senate passed S2339, which allows mechanical voting machines to be used for local elections during 2011. Some years ago, Congress outlawed these machines for federal elections.
California Republican state chair Ron Nehring has written a proposed party bylaw, that would provide for party meetings to endorse candidates for partisan office before the June primary. See this story, which has a link to the proposed rules. The party will decide whether to adopt this change at its statewide meeting in Sacramento, June 18-20.
