At the August 2010 elections for Australia’s Parliament, the voters of Longman, Queensland, elected Roy Wyatt. He had been nominated at the age of 19, before he had even voted, although by the time of the election he had turned 20. Here is a feature story about him, focused on his speech in the House of Representatives announcing that he is now 21. Thanks to Sam Harley for the link. Roy is a member of the Liberal National Party.
On May 12, the Nevada Democratic Party intervened in the lawsuit Nevada Republican Party v State, pending in state court. This is the lawsuit over the rules for the upcoming special U.S. House election. The Secretary of State ruled that parties may not nominate in that election, and the Republicans sued him. The Democrats intervened on the side of the Secretary of State. See this story. The hearing is May 19.
It seems likely that no state legislature this year will pass a bill, requiring presidential candidate birth certificates as a condition of ballot access. The Missouri bill that had contained such a provision, SB 282, passed the legislature today, but a few days ago a conference committee deleted the “birth certificate” part of the bill.
The Oklahoma bill, SB 91, has passed both houses, but the two versions differ. The version in one house accepts a certified copy of the birth certificate, but the version in the other house demands an original. The Conference Committee members were named on May 5, but they have not met, and it is likely the Oklahoma legislature will only be in session for another week.
As reported previously, the only state legislature that passed one of these bills had been Arizona, but the Governor had vetoed it. It seems somewhat plausible that when President Obama produced his birth certificate earlier this month, that took some of the interest away from these bills.
The Salt Lake Tribune has this op-ed by Randy Miller, advocating that the Utah legislature implement a normal primary system, and end the Utah caucus system for congressional, state and county elections. Utah has direct primaries, but the only candidates who can get on a primary ballot are those with significant support at a party meeting.
Carl Lewis, former Olympic track gold-medal winner who is trying to run for the New Jersey State Senate this year, does not know yet whether he will be on the November 2011 ballot in the 8th district. However, his name will be on the June 7 primary ballot. No other Democrat is running, so he will win the primary by default, barring an extremely unlikely write-in campaign against him.
He does not know if he can be on the November ballot because the New Jersey Constitution requires candidates for the State Senate to have been residents of the state for the past four years. He voted in California in 2009 and the New Jersey state courts have already ruled that he was not a resident of New Jersey during the past four years. But he is in federal court arguing that the New Jersey Constitutional provision violates the U.S. Constitution. The federal case will not be decided until after the primary.
On May 13, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels signed HB 1242, an omnibus election law bill. Among other things, it provides that just in case the current Republican Secretary of State, Charlie White, is found not to have been eligible to run for that post in November 2010, nevertheless the Republican Party is still a ballot-qualified party. Indiana defines “party” as a group that polled at least 2% for Secretary of State. It is possible White will be found not to have been eligible to run, because he apparently registered at an address at which he did not live, and voted under that registration.
Even without HB 1242, it is very unlikely that any administrative agency, or any court, would have ruled that the Republican Party is no longer a qualified party. It is unquestionably true that the Republican Party met the vote test in 2010, and whether its nominee was eligible seems to be a separate question. But some had feared for the party’s status, so just to be safe, the provision was included in the bill.