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Daily Brew: January 16, 2019

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January 16, 2019

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Today's Brew brings you a piece of trivia + an exciting announcement for our readers!  
The Daily Brew

Welcome to the Wednesday, January 16 Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

  1. Quiz: Cheers to prohibition
  2. Announcement: We’ve launched our News Hub
  3. Florida Gov. DeSantis appoints second supreme court justice
  4. Final report: Initiative signature requirements increase in 13 states and decrease in five states based on 2018 elections

Quiz: Today is the 100th anniversary of the beginning of Prohibition. Which state became the final state needed to ratify the 18th Amendment?

  1. Nebraska
     
  2. Ohio
     
  3. Pennsylvania
     
  4. Vermont
Read up on recent ballot measures dealing with alcohol consumption

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Announcement: We’ve launched our News Hub

We’ve launched a new hub for breaking news. Ballotpedia News, found at news.ballotpedia.org, is a steady stream of federal, state, and local political stories and updates.

News.ballotpedia.org provides readers with a feed of stories our team has been following. Posts give the latest updates but also draws upon the information in our 270,000 pages to include the context needed to better understand each news event.

News.ballotpedia.org content will also be shared with our subscribers and social media followers so that they have access to additional information for every story.

Florida Gov. DeSantis (R) appoints second supreme court justice

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) appointed Robert J. Luck as an associate justice of the Florida Supreme Court. DeSantis announced the appointment on Monday, effective immediately. Luck is DeSantis' second supreme court appointee to the seven-member court after the governor appointed Barbara Lagoa on January 9.

DeSantis entered office with three state supreme court seats to fill, as Justices Barbara Pariente, Fred Lewis, and Peggy Quince all retired after reaching the mandatory retirement age. Pariente and Lewis were appointed by Gov. Lawton Chiles (D) in 1997 and 1998, respectively. Quince's appointment was a joint decision between Chiles and incoming Gov. Jeb Bush (R) in December 1998.

DeSantis' appointments stand to impact the partisan balance of the court, which previously consisted of a three Chiles (D) appointees, three appointees from Gov. Charlie Crist, who was elected as a Republican but later switched to the Democratic Party, and one appointee from Gov. Rick Scott (R). The court's six current members were all appointed by Republican governors.

Justice Luck served as a judge on the Florida Third District Court of Appeal from 2017 to 2019. Gov. Rick Scott (R) previously appointed Luck to the appellate court in February 2017. He was previously a judge on the 11th Circuit Court of Florida from 2013 to 2017, having been appointed to the court by Gov. Scott on June 26, 2013.

Prior to his judicial career, Luck was an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida, a legislative correspondent for two U.S. senators, and a law clerk and staff attorney to Judge Ed Carnes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Luck also worked for Greenberg Traurig as part of the appellate section from 2005 to 2006.

Luck received his bachelor's degree in economics, with highest honors, from the University of Florida. He obtained his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Florida College of Law. During his legal studies, Luck served as editor-in-chief of the Florida Law Review.

Florida is one of 22 Republican trifectas.

2018s impact on future ballot measure campaigns: Initiative signature requirements increase in 13 states and decrease in five states based on 2018 elections

Voter turnout in the 2018 elections caused a change in the number of signatures required for initiatives and veto referendums in 18 of the 26 states that allow at least one form of statewide initiative or referendum.

  • 13 states will see a higher requirement
  • 5 states will see a lower requirement

There are 13 states with initiative signature requirements based on midterm gubernatorial or secretary of state elections. In each of these states, turnout was higher in 2018 than in 2014. Thus, signature requirements increased for future ballot measure certifications.

In these 13 states, the signature requirement increases ranged from 3.2 percent in Maine to 70.3 percent in California, where the signature requirements are higher than they've ever been in the state’s 106 years of direct democracy. These increased requirements will apply to the 2020 and 2022 election cycles. In three states—Colorado, Maine, and Ohio—initiatives can go on the ballot in odd-numbered years as well, so these requirements will also apply to initiatives for the 2019 and 2021 ballots.

There are four states with signature requirements based on turnout at general elections. In each of those states, turnout was lower than in 2016 and signature requirements decreased. In these four states, the signature requirement decreases ranged from 11.3 percent in Alaska to 20.7 percent in Wyoming. These decreased requirements will apply to the 2020 election cycle, after which the requirements will be reset based on turnout in that election.

Six states base initiative signature requirements on odd-year or presidential year gubernatorial elections. The 2018 elections had no effect on the signature requirements in those states; the requirements will be determined by the 2020 elections.

Three states base signature requirements on voter registration or population. Idaho is one of these and was the fifth state to have a decrease in initiative signature requirements based on 2018 elections. Signature requirements in Idaho are based on voter registration totals at the time of the preceding general election. The other two states that base requirements on voter registration or population, Nebraska and North Dakota, calculate the requirement at certain stages of the initiative process rather than at the time of a previous election.

Signature requirements are determined differently depending on the state. The majority of states with citizen-initiated measures—16—base signature requirements on ballots cast for gubernatorial candidates in the preceding gubernatorial election. Four states base signature requirements on total ballots cast in the preceding general election. Of the remaining states, two states base requirements on voters for presidential candidates within the state, two states base requirements on registered voters, one state bases requirements on votes cast for secretary of state candidates, and one state bases requirements on the state population.

Learn more here→
 


See also

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