On May 29, U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith, a Bush Jr. appointee, ruled that Rhode Island may not prevent a group from starting to circulate its petition for qualified party status in an odd year. Rhode Island provides that a group that wants to become a qualified party in advance of any particular election must submit a petition signed by 5% of the last vote cast. Furthermore, Rhode Island law makes it illegal to start circulating such a petition until January 1 of an even year.

The case is Block v Mollis, 09-47. The 27-page decision upholds the number of signatures. The case had been filed by the Moderate Party, which only exists in Rhode Island. See this Providence Journal news story about the decision.

This decision is the first constitutional ballot access victory in calendar year 2009 so far, and only the second decision to strike down a “start date” for petitions to create a ballot-qualified party. The first such decision had been won in U.S. District Court in Arkansas in 2001.

On May 28, the Tennessee House passed SB 547, which provides that two new members should be added to the State Election Commission. The purpose of this bill is to give the Republicans a majority on that body. Although the law already says that the party with a majority in the State House should have a majority on the Commission, implementing this provision turned out to be impossible, without enlarging the Commission.

The Republicans got a majority in the State House in the 2008 election, for the first time in history. There had been a tie in the past, but never a Republican majority.

The bill is still not fully through the legislature, since it needs to go to a conference committee.

On May 28, the California Assembly Appropriations Committee passed AB 1121, which lets 10 non-charter cities or counties use Instant Runoff Voting for their own elections.