Maine Bill for a Presidential Primary

On March 15, Senator Kevin Raye, the President of the Maine Senate, introduced LD 1882, a bill to create a presidential primary starting in 2016. Maine in the past has not had a presidential primary and has used caucuses instead, except it did have presidential primaries in 1996 and 2000.

The bill says the political parties that want a presidential primary could set the date of the presidential primary, but if they can’t agree, the primaries would be a week later than New Hampshire’s presidential primaries. Candidates would be put on the presidential primary automatically if they are discussed in the news media. There seems to be nothing in the bill that would prevent the Green Party from having a presidential primary. See this story.

Arizona Senate Committee Revives Bill on Presidential Qualifications

On March 14, the Arizona Senate Government Reform Committee passed HB 2480, after first stripping out all the original contents of the bill (which concerned health insurance), and substituting some election law provisions. They require the national committee of a qualified political party to submit signed statements by the party’s presidential and vice-presidential nominees, under penalty of perjury, that the candidates meet the constitutional qualifications. This submission would accompany the normal paperwork that national political party officials send to each state, informing that state of the names of that party’s presidential and vice-presidential nominees. The bill, if enacted, would of course apply to the state’s ballot-qualified minor parties as well as the major parties.

The bill’s author, Representative Carl Seel, asked the committee to take this action. If the bill passes the Senate, it will return to the House, because even though the House already passed HB 2480, when the House passed it, it concerned an entirely different subject. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.

Americans Elect Starts Petition Drive in Texas

On March 14, Americans Elect started its Texas petition drive, according to this press release. Texas had been the only state which has a party-petition procedure that Americans Elect had not yet started. A “party-petition procedure” is a petition that does not list any candidates; it just mentions the name of the party and asks voters to sign the petition to put that party on the ballot.

The only remaining places in which Americans Elect has apparently not started petitioning yet are Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia. Also Americans Elect hasn’t started its registration drive in Delaware. No petitioning is needed in Louisiana because a presidential nominee of an unqualified party can qualify as late as September, and have the party name on the ballot, with a filing fee of $500. Generally, the states in which Americans Elect isn’t petitioning yet are states that require a presidential candidate’s name on the ballot. Sometimes stand-ins are permitted. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.

Ezra Klein Opines on Americans Elect

Ezra Klein is a columnist for the Washington Post, for Bloomberg News, and a contributor to MSNBC. This Klein column discusses Americans Elect. It is especially interesting because he appears to have interviewed Eliot Ackerman, one of Americans Elect’s leaders. Ackerman lays stress on the role Americans Elect will play in elections after 2012, and mentions that Americans Elect will be automatically on the ballot in 2014 in many states if its nominee does well in 2012.

If Americans Elect really wants to be automatically ballot-qualified in 2014 in as many states as possible, and if it is paying attention to the laws on how parties remain ballot-qualified, then it will run candidates in 2012 for certain statewide offices other than President.

In Alabama, a party is automatically on the ballot if it polls 20% for any statewide office. In 2012, it is not likely that the Americans Elect presidential nominee will poll as much as 20% in Alabama. But if Americans Elect were to run for any of the four statewide partisan State Supreme Court races that otherwise will have only the Republican nominee on the ballot, chances are very high that it would poll 20% for one of those races. In a similar two-party State Supreme Court race in Alabama in 2000, the Libertarian Party polled over 20% of the vote and was therefore on the ballot automatically in 2002.

In Idaho, if a party runs nominees for at least three partisan offices, it is automatically ballot-qualified for the next election. The package of president, vice-president, and presidential electors counts as only one office, so Americans Elect should run nominees for two other partisan federal or state offices if it wishes to remain ballot-qualified.

In New Hampshire, a party only remains ballot-qualified if it polls 4% for Governor or U.S. Senator. There is no U.S. Senate race in New Hampshire in 2012, so it will be interesting to see if Americans Elect runs anyone for Governor. The presidential vote is useless for keeping a party on the ballot.

In West Virginia, which elects a Governor in 2012, only the gubernatorial vote counts, so it will be interesting to see if Americans Elect runs anyone for Governor. As in New Hampshire, the presidential vote is not relevant to a party’s on-going status.

In Wyoming, a party remains ballot-qualified in a presidential election year only if it polls 2% for U.S. House. The presidential vote is not involved.

Maine Bill on Public Financing Passes House

On March 14, the Maine House passed LD 1774 on a preliminary vote. This is the bill to conform the state’s public funding program (for candidates for state office) to the U.S. Supreme Court decision from Arizona last year. That decision said public funding programs can’t give extra public funds to certain candidates. See this story.

Maine supporters of public funding don’t like LD 1774 (even though the bill saves the system from being completely invalidated), and may propose an alternate solution via referendum.