On February 17, the Virginia Senate Privileges & Elections Committee passed HB 2642. However, the Committee unanimously deleted the part of the bill that bans paying petition circulators on a per-signature basis. The remainder of the bill concerns deleting deceased voters from the voter registration rolls, a non-controversial subject. Thanks to Bill Redpath for the news.
Recently, two election law bills have been introduced in the West Virginia legislature that are clearly unconstitutional.
Senators Robert Williams (D-Bridgeport) and Robert Plymale (D-Ceredo) have introduced SB 271, to require declared write-in candidates to pay a filing fee. West Virginia previously had a filing fee requirement for write-in candidates, but it was declared unconstitutional in 2000 in Phillips v Hechler, 120 F.Supp.2d 587. The “Phillips” was Howard Phillips, Constitution Party presidential candidate, who had been told his write-ins would not be counted unless he paid the $2,500 filing fee. Phillips then sued and won.
Delegates Ron Fragale, Tim Miley, and Richard Iaquinta have introduced HB 2052, which says that no one who has ever been convicted of a felony in the courts of West Virginia “or any other court” (which would even include foreign courts) may be elected to any public office. This bill, if enacted, would be unconstitutional as applied to federal office. The U.S. Constitution does not permit the states to add to the qualifications that are listed in the U.S. Constitution.
On February 16, the Indiana State Senate Elections Committee passed SCR28, asking the Legislative Council to do a 2-year study of whether Indiana should move its presidential primary from May to an earlier month. Indiana’s presidential primary has been in May starting in 1920. In 1916 it had been in March.
On February 17, Indianapolis city councilmember Edward Coleman publicly announced that he had left the Republican Party and joined the Libertarian Party. Indianapolis, which has a city-county merged government (Marion County-Indianapolis), has partisan elections. Coleman is one of the 4 at-large members and was last elected in November 2007. He must run for re-election in November 2011.
Indiana does not have registration by party. Therefore, there is no piece of paper that makes Coleman’s switch “official” other than his becoming a dues-paying member of the Libertarian Party, and of course his declaration of candidacy if he runs for re-election in 2011. See this Chicago Tribune story about Coleman’s party switch.
Maryland Senator Richard Madaleno (D-Montgomery County) has introduced SB 445. It would require all petition circulators to look at a “current and valid photo ID that includes Date of Birth” for any potential signer, before letting that person sign the petition. It also requires the signers to show their ID to the circulator.
The bill has a hearing on February 26, Thursday, at 1 p.m., in the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee.
People who have petitioned know that speed is essential. Requiring every potential signer to first show an ID would slow down the process, and also would make it impossible for some people to sign the petition, since not everyone always has ID handy. For example, people lying on a beach frequently have their wallets and purses locked away somewhere.
