Nebraska Senator Loren Lippincott (R-Central City) has introduced LB 764, which would end the Nebraska tradition of letting each U.S. House district elect its own presidential elector. Similar bills have been introduced many times in the last decade but so far they haven’t passed. Thanks to Josh Putnam for this news.
Committees in both houses of the Missouri legislature have already passed bills to make it more difficult for statewide initiatives to get on the ballot, or to require that they not go into effect without more than a majority vote. See this story.
Jesse Walker has this interesting essay titled “How Third Parties Die”, which gives the history of many third parties and notes that they generally fail because of internal dissention.
The Constitution Party has two statewide petition drives underway, in North Carolina and Missouri.
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.
