The SF Bay View, a newspaper in San Francisco that has existed since 1976, has endorsed Butch Ware for California Governor, even though he is not on the ballot. He will be a declared write-in candidate, so write-ins for him will be tallied. See the endorsement here.
On March 31, the Eighth Circuit agreed with the U.S. District Court that Arkansas can’t stop recognizing electronic signatures on voter registration forms. Get Loud Arkansas v Jester, 24-2810. The basis is the 1964 federal Civil Rights Law, which said that voting and registration can’t be invalidated if the reason for invalidation is not “material” to an accurate and fair voting system.
The vote was 2-1. The decision was written by Judge Steven M. Colloton (a Bush Jr. appointee) and also signed by Judge Ralph R. Erickson (a Trump appointee). Judge David Stras (a Trump appointee) dissented.
See this story about three minor party candidates for South Carolina Governor.
On March 27, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers signed HB 223. It outlaws out-of-state circulators for candidate petitions and recall peetitions, except that it permits them for presidential candidate petitions.
The new law is likely unconstitutional. Wisconsin is in the Seventh Circuit, and the Seventh Circuit ruled in 2000 in an Illinois case that states cannot ban out-of-state circulators.
George Skelton, the dean of political columnists for the Los Angeles Times, writes here that it is time for California to stop using a top-two primary.
The column reveals that the state chair of the Democratic Party, Rusty Hicks, agrees with that.
