Usually when an incumbent president is running for re-election, his party doesn’t sponsor any primary season debates. As per that custom, the Democratic National Committee doesn’t plan any 2024 primary debates, although of course that could conceivably change.
On April 24, the Missouri House defeated HB 267, which would have reinstated presidential primaries. The vote was 65-56, and bills need 82 votes to pass. Many legislators abstained. Thanks to Ken Bush for this news.
Several bills are being introduced in Pennsylvania that would let independent voters choose a partisan primary ballot. They are HB 976, HB 979, and HB 400. See this story. The reporter used the wrong term for these bills. They would set up semi-closed primaries, not “open primaries.” An “open primary” has been defined in U.S. Supreme Court opinions for 50 years as a system in which parties have primary ballots and party nominees, but on primary election day, any voter can choose any party’s primary ballot.
The Washington legislature adjourned on April 23. The only bill that passed that affects ballot access is SB 5182. It moves the declaration of candidacy deadline for non-presidential primary candidates from late May to the Friday after the first Monday in May. Assuming the Governor signs the bill, the 2024 deadline for candidates to file in the non-presidential primary will be May 10.
Bills to make voting mandatory, and to use ranked choice voting in the presidential primary, and to remove party labels from the ballot for all office except president, did not pass.
On Saturday, April 22, a Montana bill dealing with school board elections, which had passed the House, was amended to delete all the existing parts of the bill, and instead to be a bill for a top-two system in Montana in 2024 for U.S. Senate. So supporters of top-two in Montana have not given up, even though the original bill for a top-two system was already defeated.
The new bill for top-two is HB 774. The Montana legislature’s website still has not been updated to show the new language. Thanks to Apollo Pazell for this news.
