No North Carolina Election Law Bills of Interest Can Pass This Year

Posted on by May 16, 2009
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North Carolina legislative rules require bills to have passed their house of origin this year by the evening of May 14. Otherwise, they cannot pass this year, although they could still pass next year. No election law bills of interest can pass this year. Bills that did not meet the deadline include S731, the ballot access bill; H47, to establish the initiative; and S150, to move the presidential primary from May to February. Proposed state constitutional amendments to extend the term of state legislators also failed to move.

Two lawsuits, challenging North Carolina’s ballot access laws, are pending. A decision in the lawsuit that challenges the rules for minor parties is expected this summer from the State Appeals Court. The federal case, challenging the independent candidate requirements for U.S. House, is undergoing discovery.

Alabama Legislature Convenes Without Passing Election Law Bills

Posted on by May 16, 2009
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The Alabama legislature adjourned on May 15 without passing any election law bills of interest. Most surprisingly, even HB 711 failed to pass. HB 711 set up a pilot project for internet voting for overseas voters. It had passed the House 89-3 on April 16, and had passed the Senate unanimously on April 30. But the Senate had added a campaign finance provision. When the bill went to conference committee, the committee removed the campaign finance provision, but then it was too late to send the bill back to the Senate. See this article.

Other election law bills that failed to pass include the ballot access bill, HB 72; the bill to set up a procedure by which write-in candidates who want their write-ins talllied file a declaration of write-in candidacy; and a bill to apportion presidential electors according to what percentage of the popular vote within Alabama they received. Thanks to Ed Still’s VoteLawBlog for the link about HB 711.

Missouri Legislature Adjourns, Having Passed No Election Law Bills of Interest

Posted on by May 15, 2009
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On May 15, the Missouri legislature adjourned. No election law bills of interest to most readers of this blog passed this year. The bill that came closest to passing was a bill to make it easier to qualify initiatives. Originally known as SB569, its contents were placed into HB228. It passed the House on April 23 but did not progress through the Senate.

Bills to make it more difficult to qualify initiatives, and to move the independent candidate petition deadline from July to March, failed to pass. A bill to bring back the straight-ticket device failed to pass.

Unfortunately, a bill to improve petitioning for new parties also failed to pass. It was SB 70, and it would have corrected a typographical error in the 1993 ballot access reform bill. Although generally petitions to qualify a new party in Missouri do not need to name that party’s nominees, due to a drafting error, if the party wants to run a candidate for president, the presidential candidate and also candidates for presidential elector must be shown on the petition. However, stand-in presidential candidates are permitted on the petition.

Bills to let cities and counties use Instant Runoff Voting for their own elections failed to pass. Thanks to Ken Bush for some of the news in this post.

Minnesota Supreme Court Hears Coleman v Franken on June 1

Posted on by May 15, 2009
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The Minnesota Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Coleman v Franken, A09-697, on Monday, June 1. The issue is whether 4,400 absentee ballots from last year’s U.S. Senate election should be counted. Because Franken leads in the official recount by 312 votes, his attorneys argue that lower courts were correct to reject those uncounted absentee ballots. Even if the Supreme Court reverses the lower court and allows some or all of the uncounted absentees to be counted, no one knows whether counting them would be good or bad for Coleman. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.