Arkansas SB 614 makes it more difficult for initiatives to get on the ballot. On April 14 it passed the House. It had already passed the Senate, but because the two houses passed different versions of the bill, it still isn’t through the legislature.

It bans out-of-state circulators. Also it makes it illegal to pay circulators on a per-signature basis. And it forces initiative proponents to prove that none of their paid circulators have been convicted of a crime. The bill has an urgency clause, section 9, which says the “emergency” is that “criminal canvassers” are working in the state now, and approaching voters and getting personal information about them. Here is the text.

The vote in the Senate as 26-7, and in the House it was 72-18.

On March 31, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed HB 2020. Virginia allows all qualified parties to decide for themselves whether to nominate by primary or convention. But the bill says that if a party nominates by convention, it must make provision for persons who can’t attend a convention to participate. That includes overseas voters, persons who are ill, and persons who are temporarily away from the state. Here is the text.

As of mid-April 2021, the number of active registered voters in Florida in each party are: Democratic 5,289,083; Republican 5,184,614; Independent Party 191,199; Libertarian 41,645; Green 7,668; Constitution 3,035; Reform 1,479; Socialism & Liberation 1,275; Ecology 1,034; independent and miscellaneous 3,831,957.

The percentages are: Democratic 36.34%; Republican 35,63%; Independent Party 1.31%; Libertarian .29%; Green .05%; Constitution .02%; Reform .01%; Socialism & Liberation .01%; Ecology .01%; independent and miscellaneous 26.33%.

In October 2020, the percentages were: Democratic 36.72%; Republican 35.79%; Independent Party 1.13%; Libertarian .27%; Green .05%; Constitution .02%; Reform .01%; Socialism & Liberation .01%; Ecology .01%; independent and miscellaneous 25.99%.

Thanks to Timothy Thornburn for help obtaining these numbers. The Florida Secretary of State website posts the Democratic, Republican, and “other” figures every month. But if someone wants the other parties, and the number of independents, the Secretary of State won’t reveal those numbers directly. Instead the Secretary of State’s office mails a floppy disk containing the entire list of registered voters in the state, active and inactive, and one must extract the totals from the disk. The Secretary of State does provide the data directly just before an election, but not at other times.