On Monday afternoon, February 23, the U.S. Senate began debate on S.160, the bill to give the District of Columbia a voting member of the U.S. House. If the expected schedule prevails, the Senate will vote at 11 a.m. Tuesday, February 24, on whether to end debate. The bill expands the size of the House permanently, from 435 to 437 seats. If it passes, Utah would also gain a seat between now and 2011. The bill requires Utah to redistrict itself into 4 districts.
The South Dakota Senate Local Government Committee holds a hearing on Wednesday, February 25, on HB 1234, the bill that moves the independent candidate petition deadline (for office other than president) from June to April. The hearing is at 10 a.m. in Room 423.
On February 12, the Washington State Committee on State Government & Tribal Affairs passed HB 1624, to establish internet voting for military and overseas voters. It now goes to the Appropriations Committee, where it will be heard on February 25. The bill has opposition from people who worry that the procedure isn’t safe; the normal state law mandating a paper trail is waived for this type of voting. A companion bill in the Senate is SB 5522.
There are similar bills in the Alabama legislature, but they haven’t moved yet. They are SB 180 and HB 377. Also, there are bills to study voting by internet in Colorado (HB 1205), Hawaii (SB 631 and HB 468), Missouri (HB 613), Montana (SB 367), New Mexico (HB 487), Oregon (HB 2511), and Texas (HB 71 and SB 92). Virginia has HB 1881, to authorize sending the ballot overseas electronically but requiring that it be mailed postally back to the United States.
Besides the two New York bills that improve ballot access mentioned on February 4, two other bills have been introduced.
A4161 cuts the number of signatures needed for all petitions (except statewide petitions) in half. The bill covers petitions for candidates seeking a place on a primary ballot, and also petitions for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties seeking to qualify for the general election. It is sponsored by Assemblymembers Barbara Clark (D-Cambria Hts.), Sandy Galef (D-Ossining), and Mike Spano (D-Yonkers).
S1366 and its companion bill, A4959, delete the requirement that independent candidate petitions can only be circulated by people who live in that district. The bill merely conforms the law to current policy, since the district residency requirement was declared unconstitutional in 2004 in Chou v New York State Board of Elections.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, no. 08-205, on March 24. Citizens United is a corporation with 501(c)(4) (tax exempt) status. It produced a movie in late 2007 called “Hillary, the Movie” and wanted to air it in movie theaters and also make it available on cable television, but only “on demand” from the cable subscriber. The FEC said that Citizens United must reveal the names of all the individuals who had contributed money toward making the movie, so Citizens United pulled the movie out of theaters and never made it available on Cable. The lower court upheld the FEC’s position.
