On June 1, the Nevada Assembly concurred in the benevolent Senate amendments to AB 455 (see posting below on Nevada, from May 31).
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On June 1, Colorado Governor Bill Owens vetoed HB 1147, which would have eased restrictions on who can circulate a petition. The bill would have let any adult U.S. citizen who is a resident of Colorado circulate any kind of petition, anywhere in the state. Governor Owens said he vetoed the bill for two reasons: (1) he feels that petitions to get a candidate on the ballot in a partisan primary should only be circulated by members of that party; (2) he favors requiring circulators to wear a badge indicating whether they are being paid or not.
The current Colorado laws on who can circulate a petition (for initiatives, anyway) were held unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1999 in Buckley v American Constitutional Law Foundation. The Governor said the laws held unconstitutional ought to be repealed, but that there is no reason to repeal other such laws that have not yet been declared unconstitutional.
On May 27, the Nevada State Senate passed AB 455. It moves the Nevada primary from early September to mid-August. Fortunately, the Senate deleted all the provisions of the bill that force minor parties (which nominate by convention) to nominate their candidates any earlier. The Assembly version of the bill had even required minor parties to certify their presidential candidates by mid-June. The Senate also deleted a provision advancing the deadline for independent candidates. The bill now returns to the Assembly to see if the Assembly agrees with the Senate changes.
AB 455 also eases the deadline for potential candidates to change parties. Existing law won’t let candidates seek a party nomination (major or minor) if they changed parties later than Septemer 1 of the year before the election. The bill moderates that deadline to December 31 of the year before the election.
Credit for improving the bill in the State Senate goes to Janine Hansen of the Constitution Party, who is a full-time lobbyist in the Nevada Capitol.
On May 28, Saturday, the Illinois legislature gave final approval to HB 1968. Among other provisions, it reduces the signature requirements for citywide office in Chicago, from 25,000 signatures, to 12,500 signatures.
The citywide Chicago offices have been conducted on a non-partisan basis starting in 1999. Back when these offices were partisan, only minor party and independent candidates needed 25,000 signatures to run for Mayor and the other citywide Chicago offices. By contrast, Democrats only needed about 3,000 signatures, and Republicans only needed about 1,000 signatures.
But when the 1995 legislature switched these offices to be non-partisan, the new law was carelessly drafted, and suddenly all candidates, even major party members, needed 25,000. Now that everyone had to get 25,000 signatures, good-government groups began criticizing the requirement. Finally, the legislature has responded to the criticism and cut the requirement in half.
On May 26, the New Jersey Senate State Government Committee passed two bills to move the presidential primary from June to the last Tuesday in February, SB 2402 and SB 1297.