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.

Louisiana HB 420, the Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bill, was amended recently to include a provision that requires all candidates to certify that they have filed all federal and state income taxes that are due. The bill includes candidates for federal office. Therefore, it violates Article One of the U.S. Constitution, which does not permit states to add to the constitutional qualifications to run for Congress.

Randall Hayes, a sharp-eyed Louisianan who follows election law, noticed this amendment. He has communicated with members of the Louisiana House about the problem with the amendment.

The Libertarian Party of Alaska has increased its registration by approximately 1,000 voters in the last three months. The party will be removed from the ballot unless it gets its registration up to 9,786 in the next year. It now has 7,000 registrants, which makes it already the strongest Libertarian Party state affiliate in the nation, when each state is compared on what share of the state’s voters are registered Libertarians.

In 2004, the legislature made ballot access more difficult for parties that qualify by registration, but only for mid-term years. The 2004 law is somewhat irrational, and requires a party to have registration of 3% of the last vote cast. Since turnout in presidential years is about 30% higher than in midterm years, this means the requirements shoot up after a presidential election, and then go down again. If the 2004 amendment had not passed, parties in Alaska would need 7,120 registrants for 2010 instead of 9,786.