On February 14, the Hawaii Senate passed SB 1956 by 19-4. This is the National Popular Vote plan for electing the president.
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On February 13, Georgia Congressman Charlie Norwood died at the age of 65. He represented northwest Georgia (the 10th district) and had been re-elected in November 2006 with 67.4%.
Georgia law requires a special election to fill the vacancy before March 25. Georgia law for special congressional elections is very different than its law for ordinary congressional elections. In a special election, anyone who pays the filing fee may appear on the ballot. If no one gets 50%, there is a run-off between the top two. This will be Georgia’s first special U.S. House election since February 23, 1999, when House Speaker Newt Gingrich resigned from the House immediately after being re-elected in November 1998.
On February 13, the author of Virginia HB 3157 (the bill to impose substantial filing fees on minor party and independent candidates) dropped his own bill. Therefore, the bill failed to pass the Senate Elections & Privileges Committee. Apparently the bill had been amended on the House floor to make it far more complicated, and the bill’s sponsor, irritated at the change, then lost interest in his own bill. Thanks to Roy Scheuer for these details.
On February 9, the Montana Senate passed SB 117, to have the state pay court costs in recounts. The bill is retroactive, so if it passes, Rep. Rick Jore (the Constitution Party’s lone state legislator) will be relieved of having to pay $18,000 incurred in 2004 and 2005. The vote in the Senate was 45-4. The four “no” votes included three Democrats (including Senator Mike Cooney, a former Montana Secretary of State) and one Republican.
On February 13, the Texas Democratic Party filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State, to force him not to permit vote-counting machines made by eSlate Company. The case is filed in federal court in Austin and is assigned to Judge Sam Sparks. Texas Democratic Party v Williams, 07-cv-115.
The Texas Democratic Party says that if someone uses the straight-ticket device while voting on an eSlate machine, and then also votes for an individual nominee (from the same party), the machine records a blank vote for that office. For example, if a voter used the straight-ticket device to vote for all Republicans on the ballot, and then also individually voted for a particular Republican nominee, that the machine would register a blank vote for that office.