On May 17, the Missouri legislature adjourned. SJR 74, which would have made it more difficult for constitutional initiatives to win, did not pass. The bill, a proposed constitutional amendment, would have said that constitutional initiatives need a majority of the vote statewide and also need to get a majority in over half the U.S. House districts.
Three petitions for new or previously unqualified parties are being submitted in North Carolina this year: We the People, Constitution, and Justice for All. We the People supports Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for president. Justice for All supports Cornel West for president. See this story.
Already on the ballot are the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, and Green Parties.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., needs to be at 15% in national polls by June 20 in order to qualify for the CNN presidential debate. Specifically, he needs to be at 15% in polls from four organizations. Polls from 13 organizations will be considered. He doesn’t need to be at an average of 15% in all of them; any four polls will count. The poll can be either 15% of the registered voters, or 15% of the likely voters.
Polls from these 13 organizations are eligible: ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, Marquette University Law School, Monmouth University, NBC News, NY Times-Siena College, NPR-PBS-News-Hour, Marist College, Quinnipiac University, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.
On Friday, May 17, at 9:30 a.m., an Illinois state trial court will hear Collazo v Illinois State Board of Elections, Sangamon Co. Circuit Court, 2024CH000032. This is the lawsuit filed by the Illinois Republican Party to block a new election law that abolishes the ability of a qualified party to nominate someone for the legislature after the primary is over (assuming no one won the primary). The old procedure requires the nominee to collect petition signatures and also persuade a party committee to nominate him or her.
The Republican Party had been planning to use this procedure in several legislative districts, but then last month the legislature, which has a Democratic majority in each house, repealed the procedure, effective immediately.
on May 15, former President Donald Trump said that if Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., qualifies for the June 27 debate, that is fine with him. See this story.
