Proposed Constitutional Amendment Introduced in Congress for the Right to Vote

Posted on by September 22, 2022
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On September 21, Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wisconsin) reintroduced his proposed constitutional amendment. It has 22 co-sponsors. It says, “Section One: Every citizen of the United States, who is of legal voting age, shall have the fundamental right to vote in any public election in the jurisdiction in which the citizen resides. Section Two: Congress shall have the power to enforce and implement this article by appropriate legislation.”

He has introduced it in past sessions of Congress. It doesn’t have a bill number yet. Thanks to Fairvote for this news.

U.S. House Passes Bill to Reform Electoral Vote Counting Process in Congress

Posted on by September 21, 2022
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On September 21, the U.S. House passed HR 8873, the “Presidential Election Reform Act”, by 229-203. All Democrats voted for it. Nine Republicans voted for it: Liz Cheney (Wyoming), Tom Rice (South Carolina), Adam Kinzinger (Illinois), Fred Upton (Michigan), John Katko (New York), Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio), Chris Jacobs (New York), Peter Meijer (Michigan), and Jaime Herrera Beutler (Washington).

None of the Republicans from the top-two states voted for it, except Congresswoma Beutler.

Here is the text.

Couy Griffin Asks New Mexico Supreme Court to Reverse Lower State Court and Restore Him to Office

Posted on by September 21, 2022
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On September 20, Couy Griffin asked the New Mexico Supreme Court to hear his appeal in the case in which a lower state court had removed him from office. The Court had done so under the “insurrection” clause of the 14th amendment. He is an Otero County Commissioner, although his term expires in a few months and he is not running for re-election. Thanks to the Institute for Free Speech for this news.

Ohio Supreme Court Puts Independent Candidate for Secretary of State Back on the Ballot

Posted on by September 20, 2022
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On September 20, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the state to print the name of an independent candidate on the November ballot. The candidate, Terpsehore P. Maras, is running for Secretary of State. State ex rel Maras v LaRose, 2022-1083. Here is the Opinion.

The requirement is 5,000 signatures. The various counties had verified 5,010 signatures originally, and later they found some more valid signatures and notified the Secretary of State’s office of their last-minute discoveries. But the Secretary of State refused to accept the supplemental signatures. Also he determined that some of the signatures had been validated in error, and he found there were only 4,993 signatures.

The Court said the Secretary of State should have accepted the last-minute additional signatures.

The Supreme Court vote was 4-2. The dissesnters did not disagree with the findings about the number of signatures, but felt that the court papers had technical errors and therefore that the Court should not have accepted the case.

As a result of the court decision, the only states with no statewide minor party or independent candidates in November 2022 are California and Kentucky. As to the states that don’t have any statewide offices up this year, all of those states have at least one minor party or independent candidate for US House on the ballot. In those states that is the office at the top of the ballot.

Texas State Trial Court Keeps Independent Legislative Candidate Linda Curtis on the Ballot

Posted on by September 20, 2022
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On September 16, a Texas state trial court ruled that independent legislative candidate Linda Curtis should remain on the ballot. She had been challenged by her Republican opponent. Gerdes v Scott, Travis County District Court, D-1-GN-22-3841.

Texas independent candidate petition sheets require information about the name of the candidate to be repeated several times. Some of Curtis’ petition sheets didn’t fill out all the blanks, but each petition sheet had the needed information in at least one place. The court order says the petition is valid. Furthermore, the order says the challenge was filed too late. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.