On March 8, the New Mexico Senate passed HB 4. It provides that all adult resident citizens known by the state government to exist will automatically be registered to vote, unless they opt out. It also provides that felons released from prison may register to vote, even if they are still on probation or parole.
The Nebraska Senate Government, Military & Veterans Affairs Committee will hear LB 764 on Wednesday, March 15. This is the bill to eliminate the ability of each U.S. House district to elect its own presidential elector. Nebraska and Maine are the only two states that have that.
As reported earlier, on February 17, the Eighth Circuit struck down South Dakota’s petition deadline for initiatives, which was an entire year before the election. The state has not asked for reconsideration and the time for requesting reconsideration is now passed. SD Voice v Heidelberger v Noem, 21-3195.
The Texas ballot access lawsuit filed in 2019, Miller v Hughs, w.d., 1:19cv-700, resulted in the U.S. District Court upholding all of the Texas ballot access laws, except the judge said the Constitution required Texas to allow electronic signatures. He asked for briefs on how exactly to implement that relief. The Secretary of State and the plaintiff political parties could not agree on the details, so each filed their own proposed remedies. All of those briefs were filed in October 2022 and the judge has not acted on the case since then.
On March 7, the Arizona Secretary of State announced that the No Labels Party petition has enough valid signatures. It will be on the 2024 and 2026 ballot with its own primary each year.
Arizona treats newly-qualifying parties very kindly. Whereas primary candidates of old, established parties need a difficult petition to get themselves on the primary ballot, primary candidates for parties that are less than four years old have a very easy petition to get themselves on a primary ballot. Furthermore, a write-in candidate in a new party’s primary only needs one write-in vote to win the nomination, assuming no one else is running against that person.
When Americans Elect was on the Arizona ballot in 2012 and 2014, people who wanted to appear on the November ballot took advantage of this law, and entered the primary of Americans Elect. So Americans Elect had two U.S. House candidates on the November 2012 ballot. In November 2014 it had two U.S. House candidates and two legislative candidates.
It is not clear if No Labels Party will want any candidates for office other than President, and No Labels Party is not even committed to running for president. But in Arizona, there will probably be No Labels Party candidates for congress and state office, no matter what the No Labels leadership wants. Americans Elect never wanted any non-presidential candidates. It is conceivable that if U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema runs for re-election, she would do so as a No Labels nominee. Thanks to Eric Wong for the news about the No Labels petition success.
