On June 22, the Louisiana Senate passed HB 420 unanimously, after amending it to add new provisions. The original purpose of the bill is to extend the deadline for independent presidential candidates, and political parties, to file their paperwork for presidential elector candidates. The bill also makes these deadlines clearer.

Amendments by the Senate include nonrelated provisions. One such provision specifies that government photo-ID used at the polls for voter eligibility to vote need not include the voter’s address. This change permits the use of a passport (passports don’t include the holder’s address). The bill also says that Deputy Registrars of Voters can work outside their home parish, although the law will continue to require them to be Louisiana residents. And another amendment says that poll watchers (people who watch for election law violations at the polls on election day) must live in Louisiana. The spirit of this latter amendment contradicts international treaties that require nations to permit foreign observers.

A conference committee will take up the bill on June 23.

Theresa Amato’s book, “Grand Illusion: the Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny”, released this month, has received praise from both Congressman Ron Paul, and Pat Choate (Ross Perot’s running mate in 1996).

Congressman Paul wrote a letter on June 4, in which he said, “Theresa Amato has experienced the unfairness of our system like few others. Her new book is an important contribution that anyone serious about ballot access reform should read.”

Pat Choate reviewed the book on Amazon.com on June 16. He said, “This beautifully written, fast-paced, thoroughly-documented book brings a message about a vital problem – the corrupt two-party dominance of our democracy – that the American people urgently need to understand and correct…The Grant of the Pulitzer Prize or a National Book Award to Theresa Amato would be both appropriate and an assured way of putting this issue before the American people. The book merits either or both of those prizes.”

On June 18, the Park District Commission in Mattituck, New York, voted to let all registered voters in the village vote on the District’s budget. See this story. Previously, only property owners could vote on the budget. In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled 6-3 that, generally, governments that hold elections must let all registered voters vote. The case was Kramer v Union Free School District, and it struck down a New York law that only property owners, and parents of students attending public schools, and people who lease their residence, are permitted to vote in School Board elections. The Kramer case is a leading precedent for the idea that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment confers a general right to vote, at instances in which the government is already permitting an election of some type.

If the Mattituck Board had not acted, it faced a lawsuit by a disenfranchised voter.