The Daily Iowan, the campus newspaper for the University of Iowa, has this pair of op-eds. One advocates the National Popular Vote Plan and one opposes it.
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On February 22, the Oklahoma Senate Rules Committee passed SB 602. This bill moves the non-presidential primary from July to June. It also moves the petition deadline for a new party from May 1 to March 1. It is not known if Oklahoma legislators know that a petition deadline that early would almost certainly be held unconstitutional.
South Carolina Senator Phil Leventis (D-Sumter) has introduced SB 546, to let each U.S. House district choose its own presidential elector.
In the meantime, on February 23, a Nebraska legislative committee heard hours of testimony on LB 21, the bill to eliminate Nebraska’s provision for letting each U.S. House district choose its own presidential elector. The committee won’t vote on the bill for a week. See this newspaper story about the hearing, which also describes the testimony in favor of LB 583, the National Popular Vote Plan bill.
Bills in the Washington legislature to move the primary (for office other than President) from the 3rd Tuesday in August, to the 1st Tuesday in August, have made progress recently. SB 5171 passed the Senate Government Operations Committee on February 15, and the identical HB 1080 passed the House Committee on State Government on February 17.
The Boston Globe has this interesting article about the difficulty for Republican presidential candidates to plan their campaigns for the nomination, due to the great uncertainty about 2012 presidential primary and caucus dates. Thanks to Josh Putnam’s Frontloading HQ for the link.