Florida election law says an elected public official who files to run for an office, other than the one the officer already holds, must resign from his or her elected position. There is speculation that the legislature may amend this law, so that Governor Ron DeSantis can file for presidential primaries in 2024 without resigning the Governorship. See this story.
On March 30, the North Dakota legislature passed HB 1273. It bans approval voting and ranked choice voting. Fargo, the largest city in North Dakota, has been using Approval Voting for its own city elections for some time, but the bill will force the city to stop using it. See this story. It is possible the city will sue the state.
On March 30, the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee heard testimony on SB 2532, which doubles the number of signatures for independent candidates to get on the ballot, and also doubles the filing fees for all types of candidates for federal, state, and county office. The Committee hasn’t voted yet.
Eleven witnesses testified against the bill. No one testified in favor of the bill. The hearing lasted for 25 minutes. No Senator asked any question of any witness. The witnesses included six Libertarians, one officer of a group that assists independent voters, and four other witnesses representing themselves. One can watch at this link. Start at the 52-minute mark; the hearing ends at the one hour and seventeen minute mark.
Here is a copy of the bill.
On March 30, New Mexico Governor Grisham signed SB 180, which doubles the number of signatures needed by the nominees of ballot-qualified parties that nominate by convention. The new requirement is 2% of the last gubernatorial vote; the old one had been 1%. If a ballot-qualified convention party wished to run a full slate of nominees in 2022, its various nominees would have needed a combined total of 181,116 valid signatures.
The idea that ballot-qualified parties need general election petitions is absurd. The party has already shown that it has a modicum of support, because it had already submitted a petition for recognition, or else it had met the vote test at the last election.
New Mexico is the only state with petitions for the nominees of ballot-qualified parties. The requirement does not apply to presidential candidates. It has no effect on the Libertarian Party, because the Libertarian Party is entitled to nominate by primary. The most active party that the new law injures is the Green Party.
On March 30, the Arizona Democratic Party sued the Secretary of State to force him to remove No Labels Party from the ballot. The lawsuit is filed in state court. Arizona Democratic Party v No Labels and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, Superior Court, Maricopa County, cv2023-004832.
The Arizona law says when a party petitions for a place on the ballot, it must submit the affidavits of ten Arizona voters who represent the party. The purpose of this law is so that if the party qualifies, the Secretary of State knows who the party officers are. The Democratic Party says that No Labels submitted its ten affidavits too early in the process. It says the ten are not suppose to file until after the petition is complete. Here is the Complaint.
The press stories about this lawsuit are not accurate. They say the case involves whether No Labels must file certain federal campaign finance documents. Although the Complaint discusses No Labels relative to federal campaign finance laws, it does not actually allege that the party should be removed from the Arizona ballot because of anything relating to federal campaign finance laws.
