On May 7, the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Campaigns & Elections passed AB 35. It lets independent candidates withdraw. However, they must pay a fee to withdraw. The fee for statewide offices is $1,000.
Last year independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wanted to withdraw, but the law did not permit him to do that.
On May 29, the Nevada Assembly Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections passed AB 597. This is the bill that says independent voters may vote in partisan primaries.
On May 7, the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Campaigns & Elections passed A149. It expands the methods by which a qualified party may nominate for presidential elector. Existing law seems to say that a qualified party can only nominate presidential electors by a meeting of their state legislators, or their candidates for the legislature. The bill says that if a qualified party doesn’t have any elected state legislators, nor does it have any candidates for the legislature, the state chair can nominate candidates for presidential elector.
In 2024 the Wisconsin Green Party was qualified, but it had no candidates for the legislature, and the Democratic Party then filed a challenge to the party’s electoral slate. The State Supreme Court rejected the challenge. But if A149 becomes law, that type of challenge will cease to ever be a threat.
On May 30, the Democratic National Committee asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in National Republican Senatorial Committee v Federal Election Commission, 24-621. This is the case in which the Republican Party is hoping to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down limits on how much political parties can spend on their own nominees (assuming the party and the candidate are allowed to coordinate).
The case so far is unusual, because the FEC has told the court that it won’t defend the federal limits. So the Democratic Party, which supports the limits, wants to be part of the case. Here is the Democratic Party’s filing.
Also on May 30, the Republican Party filed this reply brief in the case.
On May 27, five independent Maryland voters filed a lawsuit in state court, alleging that closed primaries violate the State Constitution. Bryson v Moore, Anne Arundel Circuit Court, C02cv-25001586. Here is the Complaint.
