The Washington state Libertarian Party has told the press that it will sue if the Secretary of State denies that it is now a qualified party. See this story.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
The Washington state Libertarian Party has told the press that it will sue if the Secretary of State denies that it is now a qualified party. See this story.
Are there any factions in the Washington Libertarian party.Radical vs conservativevs Liberal Libertarians.Or are they civil about there differences.What Washington state needs is a Radical Liberal third party on the ballot to split the Democratic party.
Washington should work to eliminate the need for “major parties”.
Amend the state constitution to remove the arcane procedure for filling legislative vacancies, which is absolutely in conflict with the principles of Top 2. They could go back to the original language, which provides that the legislature shall provide for filling vacancies.
When Jay Inslee quit his congressional seat to run for governor, Washington held a special election for his entire congressional district, which is about five times the size of a legislative district. With all-mail elections, there is no need for polling places, voters will be informed when they receive their ballot. The rules for the special election could permit election without a runoff if a candidate receives a majority.
If there is a need for quick replacements during a legislative session, there could be a non-partisan method of choosing a replacement. Each general election, select Precinct Citizen Officers (PCO) at random to form a vacancy committee. The potential PCOs would be asked if they were willing to serve if needed. Form a pool of at least 5 voters for each precinct. If there is a vacancy, call the members of the pool, and request that they attend the vacancy committee meeting. When they meet, choose one from each precinct, and pay the others a small amount, just like they were on a jury panel. Let potential replacements submit a resume, and perhaps deliver a speech. The vacancy committee would then choose the replacement, who need not have applied.
With no formal state purpose for PCO, Washington can get out of the business of electing them. Washington could require parties to have state and county officers in case they need someone to officially represent the party.
Washington should permit any party that had a presidential candidate in 2016, to be on the presidential preferential primary ballot in 2020. Thus there would potentially be seven parties on the March 2020 primary ballot. All candidates, including independent candidates should appear on a single ballot, and any voter could vote for any candidate.
Parties could choose to be full participants, partial participants, or non-participants.
(1) Full participant parties would be required to use the primary to either (a) choose their presidential candidate directly; or (b) choose 3/4 of their delegates to a national convention on the basis of the primary results.
Voters would have to sign a pledge to a party to have their vote count in the party’s primary (same procedure as is used currently). If the party received 1000 votes, its nominee would be placed on the general election ballot.
(2) Partial participant parties would only have candidates names on the ballot. Voters would not have to sign any pledge. The party would be free to regard or disregard the results of the primary as they wish. The party could nominate any candidate who received 1000 votes.
(3) Non-Participant Party. No candidates associated with the party would appear on the ballot, except as a potential independent.
Any candidate who received 1000 votes could qualify for the general election ballot, and be endorsed by a presidential party. A new party would require 1000 convention attendees just like now. They would not be limited in whom they may nominate.
A declared write-in candidate would be required to designate a vice-presidential candidate and 12 Washington elector candidates.
An undeclared write-in candidate who receives the most votes at a general election will have an opportunity to designate his elector candidates.
All presidential candidates would file on their own behalf. They will be able to use an endorsement by a party, only by permission of the party. Elector candidates would be designated by the candidate. This does not preclude coordination between the candidate and a party.
Washington could have minimal regulations for parties, requiring them to have filed bylaws, elected officers, and some minimal activity such as a biennial convention, and financial reporting.
Must go to court NOW — due to the paralysis in SCOTUS regarding basic election law stuff.
The Trump SCOTUS HACK may help clean up the ENTIRE election law mess due to early SCOTUS Hacks (?????)
North Dakota has a law similar to Washington in that write-in votes are not tallied if they would have an affect on the results. They do report the number of write-in votes and the total votes on the Certificate of Ascertainment.
https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/2016-certificates/pdfs/ascertainment-north-dakota.pdf
And also on the “official” results on the SOS website
http://results.sos.nd.gov/resultsSW.aspx?text=Race&type=SW&map=CTY
Did Johnson receive 6.34% of the vote or 6.22% of the vote?