Almost a month ago, a U.S. District Court in Rhode Island struck down a Rhode Island election law that makes it illegal for anyone to circulate the petition to recognize a new political party during an odd year. On June 24, the Rhode Island Attorney General announced the state will not appeal that decision. The case is Block v Mollis, and had been won by the Moderate Party, a party that only exists in Rhode Island.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion on the federal Voting Rights Act on June 22 is already having an impact on Georgia voter registration. Earlier this year, the Georgia legislature passed a bill requiring new registrants to provide proof of citizenship when they register. Under the Voting Rights Act, Georgia cannot implement that new law until the U.S. Justice Department approves it. Georgia had been hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court would invalidate section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act, but that didn’t happen, so now the state must submit the 2009 change. Odds are it will not be approved. Under the federal Voting Rights Act, though, Georgia is free to bring a lawsuit to approve any election law change that the Justice Department won’t approve. Georgia is already thinking about doing that. See this story.
On June 23, the Louisiana House rejected the Senate’s extensive amendments to HB 420, so the bill now goes to a conference committee.
HB 420 was a simple bill in the House; it clarified, and slightly relaxed, the deadline for presidential electors to file their paperwork. The Senate added many amendments on unrelated election law subjects, including one that appears to be unconstitutional, relative to Congressional elections (it required candidates to certify that they have filed all their income tax returns).
In 2004, the large law firm Reed Smith coordinated the challenge to Ralph Nader’s Pennsylvania petition. In 2008, Tom Corbett, Pennsylvania Attorney General indicted state employees who worked on the petition challenge on state government time, using government computers and registration records (Pennsylvania ballot access challenges must be made by private individuals, not arms of the government).
The Corbett investigation into “bonusgate” is continuing. It is somewhat plausible that the Attorney General has been mulling over including the law firm in his indictment. On June 22, Ralph Nader noticed that some Pennsylvania attorneys who are part of Reed Smith have made $15,900 in campaign contributions to Attorney General Corbett. Nader issued a press release calling on the Attorney General not to accept contributions from Reed Smith, and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette carried the story here.
On June 23, the Arizona Supreme Court heard arguments in Brewer v Burns, cv-09-0168, the case over whether the State Constitution requires the legislature to send budget bills to the Governor in a moderate amount of time, or whether the legislature can withhold them until the start of the fiscal year (July 1). The Governor wants to veto the budget and then she wants the legislature to pass a new budget. But the legislature seems to feel that if it withholds the budget bill until the beginning of the new fiscal year, the Governor won’t dare veto the bill because it would cause a certain amount of chaos. Here is a description of the argument.
