The Florida legislature has adjourned for the year. SB 1996 and HB 1471, which would have created almost impossible rules for circulating initiative petitions, failed to pass. The bills would have outlawed paying circulators per signature, whether directly or indirectly.

The legislature did pass HB 1567, which makes the current rules for minor party presidential ballot access clearer and more specific. The old law said any national political party could place its presidential nominee on the ballot just by requesting it, but hadn’t defined “national political party”. The bill clarifies that it is a party that is on the ballot in at least one state other than Florida.

1. A very restrictive ballot access bill, HB 2614, passed the Oregon House of Representatives Elections & Rules Committee on May 5. It makes it illegal for a registered member of a qualified party to sign a petition for an independent candidate. A similar law was held unconstitutional in federal court in 1999 in Arizona (that lawsuit was Campbell v Hull, 73 F Supp 2d 1081). Ballot Access News editor Richard Winger has just e-mailed every member of the Oregon House, asking for a “no” vote. Unfortunately, the League of Women Voters has endorsed the bill.

2. The U.S. Supreme Court will probably decide on May 19 whether to hear Ralph Nader’s lawsuit against the Oregon Secretary of State. Kucera v Bradbury, 04-872. May 19 is a Thursday; the court won’t tell what it did until Monday, May 23. The issue in that case is whether it is constitutional for the state to issue new rules on petition validity after the petitions have been turned in.

On May 3, the Vermont legislature passed H505, which authorizes the city of Burlington to use Instant-Runoff Voting for its Mayoral elections. The voters of Burlington voted to use IRV in March 2005, but that change couldn’t go into effect until the legislature acted to amend the city’s charter, which H505 does.