Only two New York state election law bills are likely to be signed into law this year. One is A8501, which makes it much easier to use the local initiative process, but only for initiatives that would abolish local units of government, or permit two local government bodies to merge with each other. That bill passed the Senate on June 3, before the New York State Senate dissolved into disorder. The bill was sent to Governor David Patterson on June 12.

The other bill, S2810, was signed into law on May 26. It says an absentee ballot outer envelope should be accepted if the voter signed it using initials or common abbreviations for given names, such as “Wm.” for William. It’s unfortunate that the bill only applies to absentee ballot envelopes, and not petitions.

The bill to require voters to approve repeals of local term limits, A1224, passed the Assembly on June 16, but chances are won’t clear the Senate. The National Popular Vote bill, A1580, passed the Assembly Election Law Committee on June 17 and may yet pass the Assembly, but again the Senate is unlikely to take it up.

On June 17, the Florida Supreme Court voted 4-2 to strike down a 2007 law that lets voters remove their signatures on initiative petitions. UPDATE: Here is the court’s order. As a result, it is almost certain that the “Florida Hometown Democracy” initiative will qualify for the 2010 ballot. The case is Florida Hometown Democracy v Browning. The Court will issue its opinion later. See this story.

On June 15, the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization heard much testimony about the political status of Puerto Rico, and then passed a consensus resolution calling on the United States to expedite some means for Puerto Rico to determine its future status. See this account of the testimony.

HR 2499, the bill to authorize a vote of Puerto Rico residents as well as all U.S. citizens who were born in Puerto Rico (no matter where they now live), now has 138 co-sponsors. It has gained 25 co-sponsors in the last eleven days. The co-sponsors include 99 Democrats, 40 Republicans, and the independent non-voting member who represents the Northern Mariana Islands.

Among the 23 members of the Hispanic Caucus in the U.S. House, only 10 are among the co-sponsors. A majority of the Black Caucus (25 of the 43 members) are co-sponsors. The chair and both vice-chairs of the Hispanic Caucus are not co-sponsors.

The 40 Republican co-sponsors are Todd Akin of Missouri, Gus Bilirakis of Florida, Rob Bishop of Utah, Charles Boustany of Louisiana, Henry Brown of South Carolina, Dan Burton of Indiana, John Carter of Texas, Michael Castle of Delaware, Michael Conaway of Texas, John Culberson of Texas, Charles Dent of Pennsylvania, Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Florida, Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, Jeff Flake of Arizona, John Fleming of Louisiana, Trent Franks of Arizona, Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania, Steve LaTourette of Ohio, Dan Lungren of California, Connie Mack of Florida, Kenny Marchant of Texas, Michael McCaul of Texas, Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan, John Mica of Florida, Candice Miller of Michigan, Ron Paul of Texas, Mike Pence of Indiana, Ted Poe of Texas, Bill Posey of Florida, Adam Putnam of Florida, Thomas Rooney of Florida, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, Aaron Schock of Illinois, Christopher Smith of New Jersey, Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania, Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia, Joe Wilson of South Carolina, Robert Wittman of Virginia, and Don Young of Alaska.