On July 8, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon vetoed SB 282, this year’s omnibus election law bill. See this story. Among other things, the bill moved the presidential primary from February to March; provided for special elections when a vacancy occurs in statewide office (including U.S. Senate); and eliminated non-partisan city elections in some cities when the number of candidates listed on the ballot equals the number of vacancies.

Governor Nixon’s veto message criticized the latter two provisions. An irony of this veto is that, just before this bill passed the legislature, the conference committee had deleted a provision helping newly-qualifying minor parties, because the conferees felt that anything that helps minor parties would be “controversial” and would make the bill more likely to be vetoed. The provision would have eliminated the typographical error in the existing law that forces petitions for a newly-qualifying party to list candidates for president and presidential elector, if the new party desires to nominate for these offices in the next election. Thanks to Ken Bush and Brandon Henderson for the news about the veto.