On May 31, the California Assembly passed AB 421 by 60-18. It outlaws paying initiative circulators on a per-signature basis, but it makes an exception for initiatives in which the backers are able to collect 5% of the needed signatures with volunteer petitioners.

It also changes the ballot description for referenda, so that the ballot is less confusing. Referenda questions on ballots of all jurisdictions are often confusing, because “yes” and “no” are inherently ambiguous. A voter may not know whether “yes” means “Yes, repeal the law”, or “Yes, keep the law.”

On May 26, the Nevada Republican Party filed a lawsuit in state court, asking that the Secretary of state be prevented from holding a 2024 presidential primary for the Republican Party. Nevada Republican Party v State of Nevada, 1st jud. dist., Carson City, 23-0000051-1B. The Nevada Republican Party would rather use a caucus. The presidential primary for qualified major parties was passed by the Nevada legislature in 2021.

In Arizona in 1996, a state court ruled that if the Democratic Party and the Libertarian Party didn’t want the state to hold presidential primaries for them, they had a Freedom of Association right to tell the state not to hold such presidential primaries. That case was Arizona State Democratic Committee v Hull, Maricopa County Superior Court cv96-909. That is the only precedent from any state on this issue.

Here is the Nevada Republican Complaint. Thanks to Derek Muller for the link.

On May 30, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed the bill legalizing recreational marijuana. Normally BAN would not post this type of news, but it is relevant to this website because Minnesota has recently had two ballot-qualified third parties that made this their number one issue. Minnesota becomes the 23rd state with legal recreational marijuana.

There is still a federal ban and the Legal Marijuana Now Party, which is still on the ballot, is keen to work on doing what it can against the federal ban, which obviously relates to congressional elections.