RandySF
RandySF's JournalChanges are ahead on the Minnesota Supreme Court as one justice steps into retirement
After nearly 20 years on Minnesota’s Supreme Court, Justice G. Barry Anderson is retiring.
Anderson is the longest-tenured current justice and the last to have gained his seat through the appointment of a Republican governor.
Coming up Friday at noon, MPR News host Brian Bakst talks with Anderson about his time in the Minnesota Supreme Court, his career in the courtroom and his view on political pressures on the judiciary.
Later, a look at how the nation’s finances will factor into the 2024 election campaign with MPR News senior economics contributor Chris Farrell.
We’ll also hear some sounds and voices from the Capitol this week, and some insight from members of our MPR News politics team.
https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2024/04/26/politics-friday-minnesota-supreme-court-justice-anderson-retirement
Public weighs in on rules for Wisconsin election observers
Members of the public weighed in Wednesday on a plan that would spell out what election observers can — and can’t do — at Wisconsin polling places.
The proposed rule by the Wisconsin Elections Commission comes months before the state’s closely watched presidential election, when it could be one of six states that tip the balance in this year’s presidential race.
Unlike poll workers or election officials who help run elections, election observers are people who’ve signed up to watch the voting process. They have rights under state law, but the same law gives a polling place’s chief inspector or a municipal clerk some discretion to restrict where people are allowed to observe.
The WEC rule would let observers stand as close as 3 feet away from voters, but no closer. It would also let them stand as far as 8 feet away, but no farther.
https://www.wpr.org/politics/public-testimony-rules-wisconsin-election-observers
MI: 4 of 5 Ann Arbor City Council races uncontested as primary filing deadline passes
ANN ARBOR, MI — It may be a light election year in Ann Arbor at the city level with only one contested race for City Council heading into the August 2024 primary.
While five council seats are up for grabs, only in one ward did more than one candidate file by the filing deadline for partisan candidates Tuesday, April 23.
Council Member Jen Eyer, D-4th Ward, faces a repeat challenge from Democrat Mozhgan Savabieasfahani in the ward that covers southwest Ann Arbor.
In three other wards, Democratic incumbents are running unopposed with no Democratic or Republican challengers this year. That includes Lisa Disch in Ward 1, Travis Radina in Ward 3 and Erica Briggs in Ward 5, all seeking second four-year terms.
https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2024/04/4-of-5-ann-arbor-city-council-races-uncontested-as-primary-filing-deadline-passes.html
This East Texas town hasn't held a city council election in at least 18 years
There is no living memory of the last contested election in Kennard. And the Texas Secretary of State, which oversees most elections, does not keep records on municipal races.
As many Texans head to the polls for city council and school board elections May 4, most voters in Houston County — where Kennard is located — will not have a chance to vote. Their local elections have been canceled due to a lack of contested races.
This is not unusual, as thousands of small U.S. towns cancel local elections each year after the filing period to run for office closes and no one challenges the incumbents.
In 2022, nearly 70% of races went uncontested in the U.S., according to Ballot Ready, a company that aggregates data on elections. In Texas, nearly 76% of local races went uncontested that year.
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/25/texas-rural-local-elections/
Missouri House sends initiative petition bill back to Senate with 'ballot candy' reinstated
Legislation seeking to make it harder to change Missouri’s constitution through the initiative petition process was approved by the Missouri House on Thursday, sending it back to the Senate for a possible showdown between Republicans and Democrats over “ballot candy.”
The bill was initially approved earlier this year after Democrats ended their 21-hour filibuster in exchange for the removal of “ballot candy” provisions — referring to unrelated additions to a ballot measure designed to win voters who are skeptical of a proposal’s main focus.
On Thursday, the House added language to the bill that would ask Missourians if they want to change the constitution to define legal voters as citizens of the United States as well as whether they want to prohibit foreign entities from sponsoring initiative petitions.
Democrats called the additions “unnecessary” and “deceptive.”
“This feels to me like another situation where this body is being asked to bend to the will of the Senate,” said state Rep. Eric Woods, a Democrat from Kansas City. “We are putting this bad stuff back on to send it back over there and watch the Senate explode again as if we aren’t already in enough turmoil in this building.”
https://missouriindependent.com/2024/04/25/missouri-initiative-petition-bill-ballot-candy-reinstated/
Democratic Donations Surge
Democratic donors gave a total of $151 million to House and Senate races through the ActBlue fundraising platform in the first quarter of 2024,” Punchbowl News reports.
“The ActBlue data reveals an increase from the same point four years ago, indicating growing Democratic grassroots support as the 2024 election season heats up.”
https://politicalwire.com/2024/04/25/democratic-donations-surge/
NH: As lawmakers contemplate requiring voter ID, one organization is ready to help
Sue Nastasi lost her birth certificate years ago. “Beats me where it is,” she said.
But getting it back is not a simple matter. Nastasi was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in a hospital that doesn’t exist any more, under a different name, she said. She was taken into New Jersey family services at 4 months old after neglect from her parents, and she emerged with a new family and a new name.
Over the decades, Nastasi has kept her passport up to date, including during and after a marriage in which she had a different surname, she told New Hampshire lawmakers Tuesday. But she has had no luck so far in obtaining a birth certificate from her home state – either being told there is no record or receiving no response.
Now, Nastasi, a supervisor of the checklist in Rollinsford, says a proposed law to require a birth certificate and driver’s license in order to register to vote in New Hampshire would directly affect her right to vote.
“Registering to vote on Election Day is known by Granite Staters and used often because town hall hours are not public friendly,” she said at a hearing Tuesday in the Senate Election and Municipal Affairs Committee. “The public wants to vote and can be forgetful to carry identification on Election Day.”
https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2024/04/25/as-lawmakers-contemplate-requiring-voter-id-one-organization-is-ready-to-help/
N. Macedonia's right-wing candidate wins first round presidential election
According to the state electoral commission, with 90 percent of vots counted, Siljanovska-Davkova had romped to victory with almost 40 percent.
That put her way ahead of President Stevo Pendarovski of the ruling centre-left Social Democrats (SDSM), who claimed close to 20 percent of the votes.
The two will face off in the second round run-off on May 8 but the outlook is bleak for Pendarovski.
There will also be a parliamentary poll that same day.
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240425-n-macedonia-s-right-wing-candidate-wins-first-round-presidential-election
Tempers, retribution come with vote to repeal abortion ban
Tempers flared after the bill passed the House when Gress motioned for the measure to be immediately transmitted to the Senate and then immediately transmitted to Hobbs unamended.
House Speaker Pro Tempore Travis Grantham, R-Gilbert, said the motion was unnecessary and one he hadn’t seen in years.
“This is a ridiculous motion that sets a ridiculous precedence and drives a knife further into the wound of a body that just dealt with an awful, disgusting situation for more than three weeks,” Grantham said.
The motion failed 30-30 with Dunn voting with Republicans on the issue. Right before the House adjourned, Grantham announced Gress (R) was removed from his committee assignment from the House Appropriations Committee and House Assistant Minority Leader Oscar De Los Santos, D-Laveen, was removed from his committee assignments on House Appropriations and the House Rules Committee.
Toma said he wasn’t considering committee changes for Dunn or Wilmeth. He said Gress was removed “because I’ve decided it.”
https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2024/04/24/tempers-retribution-come-with-vote-to-repeal-abortion-ban/
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