I, fortunately, have never had to deal with harassment like this when I have been out petitioning, but I have heard about it. Here is a story from Democracy Docket about what volunteer petitioners in Missouri are facing when circulating a referendum trying to stop GOP congressional redistricting in Missouri.
Law Professor John J. Martin of Quinnipiac University has this essay, pointing out that Congress has no authority to set voter qualifications, even in federal elections. Article One lets Congress write laws on the “time, place and manner” of congressional elections. But those categories don’t include anything about voter eligibility. Therefore, the SAVE America bill recently passed by the U.S. House, mandating that only citizens can vote in federal elections, has no constitutional basis.
The article also points out that nineteen states let non-citizens vote during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Also currently 20 local governments allow non-citizens to vote in elections for their own officers.
On February 18, Emerson College Polls released a new California gubernatorial poll. See it here.
Paul Mitchell’s website “Twins” now calculates the odds of only two Republicans appearing on the November ballot at 18.5%.
On February 17, the Virginia House passed HB 630. It lets any local jurisdiction use ranked choice voting for elections for its own officers. The vote was 62-34. No Democrats voted “no” and no Republicans voted “yes.”
Jon Fleischman has this article in the Orange County Register about how Democratic interest groups manipulate the California top-two system. He says in the gubernatorial race, public employee unions, which have a great deal of spending power, will boost one of the two leading Republicans and depress support for the other leading Republican. Their goal is to get one Democrat and one Republican on the general election ballot. They are confident the Democrat would win. They do not like the idea of two Democrats being the only names on the November ballot.
