National Popular Vote Plan bills have recently been introduced in Iowa and Minnesota. In Iowa the bill is Senate Study Bill 1128. In Minnesota the bills are HF512 and SF446. At least 20 state legislatures now have bills to pass the plan.
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A previous post had noted that a Rhode Island ballot access improvement had been introduced in the State Senate. The same bill has also now been introduced in the House, by Representatives Rodney Driver (D-Richmond) and Christopher Fierro (D-Woonsocket). Since the Senate Bill is sponsored by a Republican and an Indepedent, the bill starts off with tripartisan support. The bills make it legal to circulate the petition for a new party in odd years, and reduce the number of signatures from 5% of the last vote, to 1% of the last vote.
On February 10, the Colorado Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee defeated SB 152. It would have provided for special elections when there is a vacancy in the U.S. Senate. The vote was 3-2.
The Utah legislature has passed SB 27 and sent it to the Governor. It is an omnibus election law bill proposed by the State Elections office. It makes two minor improvements in ballot access law: (1) it deletes the requirement that independent presidential candidates must file their declaration of candidacy in person; (2) it sets an independent presidential petition deadline of August 15.
The 1994 session of the legislature had accidentally repealed the deadline for the independent presidential petition. This lead to confusion, because then most people read the election law to mean that the independent presidential petition deadline was in March, when independent candidates for other office are due. Even the Federal Election Commission was confused, and published a chart of independent presidential petition deadlines that said the Utah deadline was in March.
The repeal of the requirement that independent presidential candidates must file in person is partly due to Gloria La Riva, presidential candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation last year. She had complained about the requirement, and the State Elections office took her complaints to heart. No other state had ever had such a requirement.
Ten North Carolina Republican State Senators have introduced S150, to establish a presidential primary on the first Tuesday of February. If the bill passed, North Carolina would continue to have its primary for other office in May.
North Carolina held its presidential primary in May, in the past, except that in 1976 and 1988 it held it in March.