Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced the start date of the previously announced special session on COVID-19 relief to begin November 30 at 10 a.m.

Among the action items to be addressed during the session are childcare support, housing and direct rental assistance, food insecurity, and public health response.

It is expected to take at least three days to approve the legislation. A professional lobbyist must disclose within 72 hours if a lobbyist agrees to lobby for an existing client or takes a new position in connection to legislation, standard, rules, or rates during a special session.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced November 19 she will call a special legislative session prior to Thanksgiving to provide COVID-19 relief.

The state has about $300 million in federal aid. Gov. Grisham and lawmakers want to use the resources toward small businesses and unemployment.

The special session is scheduled to begin Tuesday, November 24, and is expected to last one day. The Roundhouse will be closed to the public during that time.

A legislative report will be due within 48 hours for each separate expenditure of $500 or more made or incurred by a lobbyist or employer during the special legislative session.

The Colorado General Assembly is preparing for a special session to provide more relief to those impacted by COVID-19.

Gov. Jared Polis wants lawmakers to take immediate action on elements of his $1.3 billion stimulus package. This would include relief for restaurant owners and other small businesses.

The special session is expected after the Thanksgiving holiday, before lawmakers return on January 13 for their next regular session. It will take at least three days to approve the legislation.

A professional lobbyist must disclose within 72 hours if a lobbyist agrees to lobby for an existing client or takes a new position in connection to legislation, standard, rules, or rates during a special session.

Rep. Néstor Alonso Vega of the Puerto Rico New Progressive Party resigned from his seat in the Puerto Rico House of Representatives on November 10.

Vega, who held an at-large seat in the chamber, had been arrested and indicted for allegedly increasing an employee’s salary to receive half of the increase in return.

Vega had recently won re-election to his seat on November 3. He is the third member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives to resign after being arrested and charged with corruption this year, after María Charbonier Laureano and Nelson Del Valle Colón.

The Puerto Rico House of Representatives is the lower chamber of Puerto Rico’s bicameral legislature. All 51 of Puerto Rico’s House seats were up for election on November 3.

Special elections to fill the vacant seats have not yet been announced.

Pedro Pierluisi of Puerto Rico’s pro-statehood New Progressive Party won a majority of votes to become the U.S. territory’s next governor, according to official results released in the late evening on November 7.

With 100% of precincts reporting, Pierluisi received nearly 33% of votes compared with nearly 32% obtained by Carlos Delgado of the Popular Democratic Party, which supports the current territorial status.

The results come four days after Puerto Rico held general elections, an unusual delay blamed on a record number of early and absentee votes that overwhelmed officials.

Voters in Oklahoma City approved a proposition relating to accepting things of value from private businesses.

Proposition 9 amends the city charter to reorganize and update provisions banning city employees from accepting things of value from private businesses on better terms than available to the general public.

Article IV, Section 12 of the Oklahoma City Charter prohibits city officers and employees from directly or indirectly accepting or receiving any salary, commission, compensation, free or discounted service, or other thing of value of any kind from certain specified privately-owned businesses within the city on terms more favorable than is granted to the public generally.

Proposition 9 provides an exception allowing the granting of a city franchise or other city contract conditioned upon free service to the city and to its officers and employees while they are engaged in the performance of their duties.

Proposition 9 took effect when passed 70% to 30% on November 3.

Voters in Oklahoma City approved a proposition relating to mayoral and city council elections.

Proposition 1 amends the city charter by changing the names of “primary” and “general” elections to “general” and “runoff” elections.

Additionally, the proposition sets the regular general election date for mayoral elections to the second Tuesday in February 2022 and every four years going forward instead of existing primary mayoral election dates set as the second Tuesday in March.

Proposition 1 also sets the regular general election date for city council elections as the second Tuesday in odd-numbered years instead of the existing primary city council election date set as the first Tuesday in March.

The regular runoff election date for both mayoral and city council elections would be set to the first Tuesday in April immediately following the general election.

Lastly, the proposition adds specific processes for if the city council creates more than eight city wards and provides elected officials take officer four weeks rather than one week after the runoff election.

Proposition 1 took effect when passed 73% to 27% on November 3.

Voters in Laredo approved a proposition exempting certain public officials from the prohibition on participating in political activity.

Proposition D amends the city charter to explicitly exempt the mayor, in addition to individual city council members, from the prohibition against political activity by city employees.

Proposition D took effect when passed 70% to 30% on November 3.

Voters in Laredo, Texas approved a proposition to trigger an automatic recall for certain criminal convictions of mayor and city council members.

Proposition A amends the city charter to require city council members and mayors convicted of non-felony crimes to be automatically recalled.

Additionally, these non-felony crimes will be determined based on the district court’s assessment of whether the crime involves “moral turpitude.”

The proposition took effect when passed 77% to 23% on November 3.

Voters across Puerto Rico await final results on November 4 following elections that saw long lines and produced a tight gubernatorial race.

Candidate Pedro Pierluisi holds a slight lead over Carlos Delgado Altieri and several other candidates in the race for governor.

Pierluisi, the candidate for the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, is the territory’s former non-voting representative in Congress.

He also briefly served as governor following huge street protests last year that led to the resignation of former Gov. Ricardo Rosselló.

Rosselló was forced out of office in August 2019 amid mass street protests and corruption allegations.

His successor, Wanda Vázquez Garced, battled the pandemic and earthquakes until Pierluisi won the gubernatorial primary earlier this year.

Pierluisi also trailed gubernatorial opponents Juan Dalmau of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, Alexandra Lúgaro of Citizen Victory Movement, César Vázquez of the Dignity Project, and independent candidate Eliezer Molina.

With more than 95% of the votes counted, Pierluisi leads Altieri 32.40% to 31.36%.

On November 3, voters in New Mexico approved a constitutional amendment to allow the legislature to adjust the term of a state, county, or district officer.

House Joint Resolution 8, or Amendment 2, allows the legislature to adjust the term of a state, county, or district officer to align or stagger the election of officers for a particular state, county, or district office throughout the state.

Additionally, the amendment will clarify that officers elected to fill a vacancy in office must take office on the first day of January following their election.

The amendment became effective upon voter approval.

As of 7:00 a.m. November 4, with 96% of the precincts reporting, the amendment passed 64% to 35.7%.

On November 3, voters in Arkansas approved a constitutional amendment to impose term limits for state legislators.

Issue 2 creates term limits of 12 consecutive years for state legislators with the opportunity to return after a four-year break.

Arkansas previously had a 16-year lifetime term limit for state legislators.

The 12-year limit will apply to anyone elected in 2021 or after.

Those first elected to the legislature before 2021 will keep the state’s existing term limit of 16 years, but they will be eligible to run for election again after four years.

As of 7:00 a.m. November 4, with more than 95% of the precincts reporting, the amendment passed 55.4% to 44.6%.

On November 3, voters in Utah approved a constitutional amendment to modify the commencement date of the annual Utah legislative session.

Senate Joint Resolution 3, or Amendment F, amends the commencement of the legislature from the fourth Monday in January to a day in January designated by state statute.

Previously, if the state legislature wished to change the session start date, lawmakers would need to amend the state constitution by passing a constitutional amendment by a two-thirds vote of the legislature.

The amendment would then require statewide voter approval.

Under Amendment F, the legislature will be able to change the session start date in state statute, which requires a simple majority vote in the legislature and does not require voter approval.

The amendment also excludes state holidays that are not also federal holidays from counting toward the 45-day limit of annual general sessions.

Amendment F will take effect January 1, 2021.

As of 7:00 a.m. November 4, with more than 76% of the precincts reporting, the amendment passed 66.8% to 33%.

Incumbent Lt. Gov. and Republican Spencer Cox defeated candidate Chris Peterson 64% to 30% in Utah’s gubernatorial race.

Cox, the top finisher among state Republican convention delegates, beat three GOP candidates in the June 30 party primary.

Those are former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., former Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes, and former Utah Chairman Thomas Wright.

Peterson, a University of Utah law professor who worked on consumer issues in the Obama administration, won the Democratic nomination outright at his party’s state convention and did not face a primary in his first run for public office.

Cox will succeed Republican Gov. Gary Herbert.

Herbert chose not to run for reelection after more than a decade in office and endorsed Cox in the hotly contested GOP gubernatorial primary.