Arizona State Senator Karen Johnson is the author of SB 1430, which moves the Arizona non-presidential primary from mid-September to early September. The bill has already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. Johnson will try to amend her own bill on the Senate floor to improve the Arizona independent candidate deadline. For president, Arizona has the 2nd earliest independent deadline in the nation. The current Arizona deadline is in early June; only Texas has an earlier deadline.
On February 8, the North Dakota House defeated HB 1336, the National Popular Vote Plan, by 31-60.
On January 30, fourteen Pennsylvania Representatives introduced HB 48, which says that write-in votes are void if they are cast for a candidate who was removed from the ballot because his or her petition was insufficient. The sponsors include 8 Democrats and 6 Republicans. The Democrats include Babette Josephs, chair of the committee that will hear the bill (the Committee on State Government).
The bill seems to contradict a 1905 decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Oughton v Black, 61 A 346. On page 348, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that the state constitutional provision that elections be “equal” would be violated if voters were not permitted to write-in anyone they please. The Court said, if write-ins were restricted, “the election (as to the voter who cast a write-in vote) would not be equal, for he would not be able to express his own individual will in his own way.”
Indiana State Senator Tim Lanane, Democratic leader in that body, has introduced SB 296, to move the primary from May 6 to March 6. The bill would not have any effect on independent or minor party candidate petition deadlines.
Two bills have been introduced in the Texas legislature to move the primary (for all office, not just president) from early March, to early February. They are HB 993 and HB 996. Although all their co-sponsors are Democrats, Republican legislative leaders have said they support the idea behind the bills.
HB 993 was introduced on January 30, and HB 996 was introduced on January 31. Both bills move the petition deadline for new parties from May to April. If the bills pass with this characteristic, there would probably be new legal challenges to this deadline. Deadlines concerning minor party and independent presidential candidates are unconstitutional if they are very early.
