On February 16, the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, removed a candidate from the Illinois Democratic primary for a judicial position. Rice v Cook County Officers Electoral Board, 2024-COEL-7.
According to this story, early voting had already started, although no postal ballots had been sent out yet. Votes for the removed candidate, Ashonta Rice, will not be tallied.
The lower court had also ruled against the candidate, but had stayed its own decision.
On February 15, the Utah legislature passed SB 107, which eases the petition deadline for independent candidates from January to June 15. It also repeals the residency requirements for petitioners, so now the law allows out-of-state circulators.
As far as is known, this is the first bill in any state this year to have passed the legislature that improves ballot access for minor party or independent candidates. The lawsuit filed by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is responsible for the portion of the bill that eases the deadline.
If you are in or near Ohio’s Capital City of Columbus today, I am honored to be speaking at Noon (and it will start precisely at Noon) to the Federalist Society at the Capital University School of Law, 303 E. Broad St., Room 245. The event is open to the public.
The topics will be Candidate Ballot Access and Ranked Choice Voting. After I address the group, Mark Brown, Newton D. Baker/Baker and Hostetler Chair of Law at Capital University Law School, will speak, followed by Q&A. This all has to fit into 50 minutes, because afternoon classes commence at 1PM, so I will have to be on my game and less loquacious than usual.
For those of you on the fence and not vegetarian, the event will be catered by Chick-fil-A. I hope to see you there.
On Febraury 18, No Leaders leader Ben Chavis appeared on MSNBC’s “The Weekend”. He said No Labels will have decided whether to run its own ticket, and who its ticket will be, by two weeks from now. See this story.
On February 15, Iowa HSB 697 passed the State Government Committee for both houses of the legislature. This is the bill that limits objections to the eligibility of federal candidates, so that the provisions of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment would not be eligible for the challenge process.
