The Constitution Party has two statewide petition drives underway, in North Carolina and Missouri.
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Hawaii State Representative John Mizuno has introduced HB 342, a bill for a study of a presidential primary. Hawaii is one of the very few states that has never held government-administered presidential primaries. The only other such states are Iowa, Nevada, North Dakota, and Wyoming. Alaska held a presidential primary when it was a territory. Thanks to Josh Putnam for this news.
On January 19, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued an opinion in In re: Nomination Papers of Kosin and Avery, 92 MAP 2022. The case concerned how to interpret the “sore loser law”. Caroline Avery and Brittany Kosin had submitted petitions to run in the 2022 Republican primary, for U.S. House and State House. But they withdrew those petitions and then filed new petitions to be Libertarian candidates in the general election. However, they were both challenged and the challenges had been upheld by lower state courts. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court opinion says that the lower courts were correct to keep the candidates off the ballot. The Pennsylvania “sore loser law”, the Court explains, covers candidates who submitted petitions to run in a primary, even if they withdrew those primary petitions later.
There had been an old precedent in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that came to a different conclusion, but the new opinion finds some technical differences between the old precedent and the new situation. Here is the opinion.
Missouri Representative Eric Woods (D-Kansas City) has introduced HB 738, to restore presidential primaries in Missouri. Although Missouri held presidential primaries in 2020, the legislature that year passed a bill ending them in future elections.
Representative Woods has also introduced HB 739, to use ranked choice voting for all Missouri partisan elections, in both the primaries and the general election. Thanks to Ken Bush for this news.
On January 17, the New Hampshire House Election Law Committee rejected HB 101, which would have converted New Hampshire primaries from semi-closed to closed. The bill would not have allowed anyone to choose a party primary unless the individual had joined the party at least four months before the primary. The bill lost 19-0.