A Florida initiative to legalize most abortions has 910,946 valid signatures, enough to qualify. The law requires 891,523. See this story.
For 2024, Florida requires more signatures for an initiative than any other state. Close behind is a California initiative to change the constitution, which requires 874,641.
On January 4, some Massachusetts voters asked the Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission to remove former President Donald Trump from the Republican presidential primary ballot. The primary is March 5.
The Ballot Law Commission has five members, three Democrats and two Republicans. All were appointed by the Governor.
On January 4, the Public Interest Legal Foundation filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Anderson v Griswold, the Colorado Trump ballot access case. The lead argument is this amicus is that the 14th Amendment, Section 3, is no longer in force, because Congress in 1872 and again in 1898 passed “Amnesty Acts”.
Of course Congress can’t amend the Constitution all by itself, but the amicus says the portion of section 3 saying congress can “remove the disability” applies not only to past acts but future acts of insurrection as well. This is an argument that hasn’t been made so far in the lower courts in Trump ballot access cases. Read the amicus here.
On January 4, the Colorado Republican Party filed this reply brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Anderson v Griswold, 23-696.
On December 29, a North Carolina independent voter, Brian J. Martin, filed a lawsuit in state court to keep former President Donald Trump off the North Carolina Republican primary ballot. Martin v North Carolina State Board of Elections, 23cv-037438-910. Martin says he intends to vote in the upcoming Republican primary. North Carolina lets independent voters choose a partisan primary ballot.
Martin had earlier asked the State Board of Elections to bar Trump from the ballot, but the board voted 4-1 that it doesn’t have jurisdiction to do that. The Board has three Democrats and two Republicans. The challenge procedure in North Carolina doesn’t seem to apply to presidential primary candidates who don’t actually file to be on the ballot; instead the party tells the State Board which presidential candidates to list (and those not chosen are then free to submit a petition).
