The Delaware legislature adjourned at 5 a.m. on the morning of July 1. HB 198, the National Popular Vote Plan bill, did not get brought up in the Senate (it had passed the House on June 24). However, the bill could pass the Senate next year, because Delaware has two-year legislative sessions.
Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, from California’s 10th district, resigned to become an Undersecretary of State on June 26. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will soon set the date for the special election to fill that vacancy. Already the Green Party has a member intending to run. He is Jeremy Cloward, an adjunct professor of political science. Here is his web page.
The Arizona legislature met all night, June 30-July 1, and adjourned at 7:30 a.m. on July 1. In a surprise, the bill to set up a public vote on whether to keep the state’s public funding, failed to pass the House. It was never brought up.
Certain other election law bills did pass the legislature. SB 1123, to switch Tucson city elections from partisan elections to non-partisan elections, passed. Also passing was SB 1091, the Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bill. It says that out-of-staters may circulate for an independent presidential candidate, but they may not work on any other type of petition in Arizona. That bill also moves the independent presidential deadline to 60 days before the general election (i.e., early September) but keeps the deadline for all other independent candidates in June.
SB 1091 also says that initiative petition signers must fill in all the petition blanks in their own hand. However, it continues to be true that petitions for independent candidates, and for new parties, can let the circulator fill in the address, the printed name, and the date, on behalf of the signer, if the signer wishes.
Almost all of the interesting election law bills in the U.S. House have continued to add co-sponsors during June. In order of how many co-sponsors each bill has, here is a list:
1. Popular vote on Puerto Rico status: 151 (HR 2499)
2. Paper Trail for Vote-Counting Machines: 80 (HR 2894)
3. Public Funding for Congressional Candidates: 56 (HR 1826)
4. Express mail to be used for mailing overseas absentee ballots: 38 (HR2393)
5. Anti-Gerrymandering: 12 (HR 3025)
6. Requiring Presidential Candidates to Submit a Birth Certificate: 6 (HR 1503).
The only interesting bill that has no co-sponsors is HR 665, to provide that D.C. voters should be treated as Maryland voters, for purposes of congressional elections. Representative Dana Rohrbacher (R-California) introduced it in February.
The New York Times of June 30 reports that the New York State Senate is no closer to establishing a compromise, than it was two weeks ago. With no settlement of who the Senate’s officers are, no business is being conducted.
