According to this story, the South Dakota legislators who back the National Popular Vote Plan idea may qualify an initiative, to ask the voters of South Dakota if they wish to pass the plan. It appears the backers would attempt to gather the signatures between August and November this year, and it would appear on the November 2012 ballot.
On June 17, the Louisiana Committee on the Senate & Governmental Affairs passed SB 509 by a 5-4 vote. This is the bill that moves the presidential primary from February to March. It had appeared defeated earlier this week. The change in Louisiana’s presidential primary date has no effect on any deadlines involving new parties or independent candidates. Thanks to Josh Putnam for this news.
On June 16, the Delaware Senate unanimously passed SB 118, which relaxes somewhat restrictions on the the ability of voters to change parties. Current law says voters may not change their party registration between November 1 of the year before a presidential election year, and the Monday following the presidential primary. Therefore, current law won’t let a voter switch parties during November and December of 2011, nor January and part of February 2012. That is a severe burden on any group trying to qualify a new party. This is because the only way to qualify a new party in Delaware is to persuade approximately 625 voters to register into the party, and if no one can switch parties for a period that long, that inhibits qualification of new parties.
The bill says people would be barred from switching parties in the period 60 days before the presidential primary, to the Monday after the presidential primary. That is also restrictive, but at least it gives voters freedom to switch parties during odd years. Another bill, SB 89, also passed the Senate on June 16, and it moves the presidential primary from February to April. Assuming both bills pass, voters will be able to switch parties between now and February 2012. Thanks to Tony Roza for this news.
On June 16, the Arkansas Secretary of State determined that the Libertarian Party petition for party status has enough valid signatures. The party had submitted 16,000 to meet a requirement of 10,000. The validity rate was approximately 75%.
Before 1971, Arkansas did not require any petition for a party to become ballot-qualified. Since then, the other only parties that have ever successfully petitioned for party status in Arkansas have been the Reform Party in 1996, and the Green Party in 2006, 2008, and 2010.
Arkansas removes parties from the ballot unless they poll 3% for the office at the top of the ticket in each election (president in presidential years, and Governor in midterm years). This law has never permitted any party to keep its status, except that in 1996, the Reform Party met that test and also appeared automatically on the 1998 ballot. The Green Party is currently waiting for the 8th circuit to rule in its lawsuit against the 3% retention test.
Arkansas has a far easier ballot access procedure for parties that just want to be on the ballot for President. That petition only requires 1,000 signatures, and until today, that is the only petition that the Libertarian Party had ever used in Arkansas. Arkansas is the only state in which the Libertarian Party has never placed any nominees on the general election ballot, other than its presidential nominees. There are no statewide offices (other than President) up in Arkansas in 2012, but it is expected that the Libertarians will have candidates for U.S. House and state legislature.
Americans Elect has collected more than 1,000,000 signatures on its petition to qualify as a party in California. The party’s national web page does not tell how many signatures it has collected in any particular state. However, as of June 16, the web page does say that the party has collected 1,262,665 signatures so far in the nation. The vast majority of these signatures are from California, where the state demands either 103,004 registrations or 1,030,040 signatures on a petition. Americans Elect is using the petition method, and will probably need at least 1,600,000 raw signatures to have enough valid signatures in California.
The public mood just now is very favorable to alternate choices, and the nation’s other minor parties would be wise to be petitioning for 2012 now. The weather is good for petitioning, and petitioning is always less expensive in odd years than in election years. Also paid petition drives go more smoothly without the stress of imminent deadlines looming.
On June 15, the Louisiana Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee passed HB 533. This is the Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bill. Among other things, it lets independent candidates choose the label “independent” on the ballot. Current law puts “no party” on the ballot for independent candidates, except that current law already lets presidential independent candidates choose any label they wish, including “independent.”
The bill also removes the names of presidential elector candidates from the ballot. If the bill passes, the only states that will continue to show the names of presidential elector candidates on the ballot will be Arizona, Oklahoma, Idaho, North Dakota, and South Dakota.