On November 19, the National Popular Vote bill in New Jersey passed all Assembly committees, and is on second reading in the Assembly. The bill is A4225. An identical bill, S2695, had already passed the Senate Government Committee on June 14, 2007.
The 2006-2007 session of the New Jersey legislature only has a few weeks left. If the bill doesn’t pass this month, it must start all over again next year.
On December 4, the Federal Election Commission issued a press release saying that Joe Biden has become the fifth presidential candidate to be ruled eligible for primary season matching funds.
The same press release also says there isn’t enough money in the Presidential Public Funding program to pay matching funds to any primary candidate. The money that is in the fund must be saved for the Democratic and Republican conventions ($16,356,000 to each of those two parties), and for the general election campaigns of those two parties. If any primary season money is paid out, it won’t be until more income tax forms are processed, for the most part in the spring of 2008. Thanks to Tony Roza for this news.
On December 3, Illinois called a special election in the 14th Congressional district. All petitions are due on December 17. The primary for the Democratic, Republican and Green Parties will be February 5. The general election is on March 8, a Saturday.
Independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, need 9,995 signatures. Since the election was called only two weeks before the due date for this petition, it is wholly unfair to expect anyone to collect that many valid signatures within the confines of a single U.S. House district in less than two weeks.
The 4th and 11th circuits have ruled in the past that when the normal petitioning period is shrunk, due to the time constraints of a special election, that states must shrink the number of signatures proportionally. However, the Illinois State Board of Elections has indicated that if any independent or unqualified party nominee desires to obtain a place on the ballot, he or she must sue them to get this type of relief. The normal Illinois petitioning period is 90 days. 14 divided by 90 equals a fraction that, if applied to the requirement, would yield 2,172 signatures.
The vacancy was caused by the resignation of J. Dennis Hastert, who represents a district centered on the cities of Elgin, Aurora and DeKalb.
Illinois HB 1685 (the National Popular Vote bill) has been given another extension. It now could conceivably pass if action is taken before January 10, 2008. Action could happen if the Governor calls the legislature back into session this month.
It is possible, but unlikely, that the U.S. Supreme Court will issue an opinion in either or both of its election law cases on December 10, 2007. The two cases are from New York and Washington state. The Court issued two opinions on December 4 (their first so far in this term), but they were not the election cases. December 10 is the next possible day for opinions.
