Nebraska Senators John McCollister and Adam Morfeld have introduced LB 1005. It would eliminate party nominations for congress and state executive office. Instead all candidates would run in the May primary, and then the top two candidates would run in November. There would be no party labels on the primary ballot, but there would be partisan labels on the general election ballot.

If this bill were to become law, it would be very difficult for a party to maintain its qualified status. Currently parties remain on the ballot either by polling 5% of the statewide vote for any office at either of the last two elections, or by having at least 10,000 registrations. But the bill would end party nominees, so the vote test, which is quite easy compared to the registration alternative, wouldn’t work any more.

The bill would have no effect on partisan county offices, nor president.