On March 3, the Hawaii Senate passed SB 47, which deals with the order of candidates on the ballot. Existing law uses alphabetical order of candidate surnames. The bill changes that for a random procedure to determine which candidates are listed first.
This Vox story by Christian Paz says that independent U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema does have a chance to be re-elected next year, even if she is not a major party nominee.
On March 16, some Florida voting rights groups filed a federal lawsuit against the Florida law that does not permit anyone to submit a voter registration application that doesn’t bear a “wet ink” signature, except through a Motor Vehicle registration office. Vote.org v Byrd, n.d., 4:23cv-111. Here is the Complaint.
The case is assigned to Judge Allen Winsor, a Trump appointee.
The plaintiffs took the considerable trouble to sue each of Florida’s county elections supervisors, as well as the Secretary of State. That is because past experience in Florida voting rights cases have shown that if only the Secretary of State is sued, the Secretary of State will argue that he is not the proper defendant.
The ballot access appeal from the Libertarian and Green Parties of New York is now docketed in the U.S. Supreme Court. It is case 22-893, and if the state wishes to respond, its response is due April 17. Also if any organization wishes to file an amicus curiae brief in support of the petition, that amicus would be due April 17. If the state does choose to respond that might possibly cause a later deadline for an amicus.
On March 7, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee signed HB 1419, which requires statewide initiatives to include a large number of signatures from each of at least fifty counties. Arkansas has seventy-five counties.
Generally, courts have struck down county distribution requirements for all types of statewide petitions. But on August 31, 2022, the Eighth Circuit upheld Nebraska’s county distribution requirement for statewide initiatives. The vote was 2-1. The losing side did not ask for U.S. Supreme Court review, so now it is too late to overturn the Nebraska decision, Eggers v Evnen. Both Nebraska and Arkansas are in the Eighth Circuit. Thanks to Paul Jacob for the news about HB 1419.
