On February 24, the Idaho House passed HB 138 by 61-6. It moves the presidential primary from March to May. Thanks to Josh Putnam for this news.
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On February 17, the Eighth Circuit issued an opinion in SD Voice and Cory Heidelberger v Noem, 21-3195. It strikes down the South Dakota petition deadline for initiatives, which is one year before the election. The decision is by Judge L. Steven Grasz (a Trump appointee), and is also signed by Judge James B. Loken (a Bush Sr. appointee) and Judge Raymond Gruender (a Bush Jr. appointee). Here is the 16-page opinion.
The opinion is probably the most significant lawsuit win for the initiative process since the First Circuit decision last year that struck down Maine’s residency requirement for initiative circulators. There had never before been any federal court decision that held the petition deadline for an initiative can be too early.
The plaintiff is a Democrat who is active in placing initiatives on the ballot. He will probably next work on an initiative to repeal the sales tax on groceries.
The decision notes that South Dakota uses random sampling to check the validity of initiatives, and in the past has been able to validate an initiative petition in only two days, using random sampling. Of course, even in states that use random sampling, there are times when the random result is so close that the state must then check all the signatures. Thanks to Robbin Stewart for this news.
Fifteen Vermont Representatives, all Democrats, have introduced HB 97, which moves the petition deadline for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties from August to May. The bill passed the House Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee on February 22.
There over thirty court precedents that the petition deadline for non-presidential independents cannot be earlier than the date of the primary. The Vermont primary is in August, so the bill would be unconstitutional if it passes.
The bill also outlaws “sore losers”, and makes it more difficult for an individual to be nominated by write-in votes at the primary. Current law says a write-in winner must receive a number of write-in votes equal to half the number of signatures that would have been needed to gain a place on the primary ballot. The bill doubles the number of write-ins needed.
When the bill was originally introduced, it only raised the write-in requirement, but it was amended in committee to make other restrictive changes. Thanks to the Progressive Party for this news. The Progressive Party is fighting the bill.
J. J. McCullough of Vancouver, British Columbia, has created this entertaining 18-minute you tube about the history of U.S. ballots. It has some fresh ideas, especially at the end.
There is one very small factual error. It says every state had started using government-printed ballots by the 1910’s, but actually Georgia didn’t start until 1922, and South Carolina didn’t start until 1950. Thanks to Jack Ross for the link.
Minnesota State Senator Jim Carlson (D-Eagan) has introduced SF 1827, which changes the definition of a qualified party. The current definition is a group that polled at least 5% for any statewide office at either of the last two elections. The bill doubles that to 10%.
Senator Carlson is chair of the Senate Elections Committee.
2023 is turning out to be a very bad year for ballot access in state legislatures. There are bills to make it more severe in Connecticut (a bill for a top-two system), Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire (bills to move the non-presidential primary indirectly make the petition deadlines worse), and New Mexico. There are fears of a bad bill coming in Texas. Bills to make ballot access more difficult have already been defeated this year in Colorado and Wyoming.
The Minnesota definition of a qualified party is already too severe. To illustrate that, note that the Libertarian Party has been ballot-qualified in 43 states, but it has never been qualified in Minnesota. The other such states are Georgia for district office, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia.
The definition of “qualified” is that the party has the same ease of placing nominees on the general election ballot that the Democratic and Republican Parties enjoy. Thanks to Edward T. J. Brown for the news about Minnesota.