On April 1, the Tennessee Senate State & Local Government Committee failed to pass SB 1091. The vote was 3-3. On a tie, the bill cannot advance. It would have lowered the number of signatures for a newly-qualifying party from 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote (over 40,000 signatures) to exactly 2,500 signatures.
would like to know how GOP and DEM members voted. So darn close to getting reasonable ballot access for new parties. Would be a great plan for Ohio.
Aye: Bowling(R), Harper(D), Tate(D)
No: Norris(R), Stevens(R), Yeager(R)
Pass: Johnson(R), Ketron(R)
There are 26 R and 7 D senators, so the 6-2 split on the committee is not disproportional.
The bill had been on the committee calendar five times, and action was deferred, Tuesday was the last meeting of the committee this session, so I suspect that the votes were never there.
The house companion bill, HB 898, was also pulled from the calendar for its committee, so I suspect that it is dead as well.