The Colorado Secretary of State has released registration data for January 1, 2021. Here is it. Percentages are: Democratic 29.89%; Republican 27.19%; Libertarian 1.12%; Constitution .31%; Green .23%; Approval Voting .09%; Unity .08%; independent and miscellaneous 41.09%.
On October 1, 2020, the percentages were: Democratic 30.09%; Republican 27.36%; Libertarian 1.07%; Constitution .30%; Green .23%; Unity .07%; Approval Voting .07%; independent and miscellaneous 40.83%.
The Oklahoma State Board of Elections has posted registration data for January 15, 2021. See it here.
The percentages are: Republican 50.12%; Democratic 32.93%; Libertarian .69%; independent and other 16.25%.
On September 30, 2020, the percentages were: Republican 49.86%; Democratic 33.52%; Libertarian .61%; independent and other 16.01%. Thanks to Chris Powell for the link.
On January 12, a bill was introduced in the Washington legislature to let cities and counties use ranked choice voting for their own officers. The bill, HB 1156, has 27 sponsors. Here is the text.
On January 13, J. Edward Hollington, an independent candidate for the upcoming special U.S. House election in New Mexico, filed a lawsuit in state court against the short time period allowed for him to collect the needed 6,426 signatures. Hollington v Toulouse Oliver, Bernalillo Co., 2nd jud. dist., D-202-cv-2021-00252. The lawsuit also challenges the number of signatures. The time period is now unknown, but will be between 21 and 35 days.
The seat will soon be empty because Congressmember Deb Haaland will soon resign to become Secretary of the Interior.
There are favorable precedents from Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Montana, and Utah, that in special elections, when the petitioning period is much shorter than usual, the ballot access petition requirements must be eased.
Wisconsin holds a special state senate election on April 6, to fill the vacant State Senate seat, 13th district. The vacancy exists because the previous State Senator, Scott Fitzgerald, resigned to take a seat in Congress.
The American Solidarity Party has petitioned to place its nominee on the ballot. He is Ben Schmitz. He will face the Republican and Democratic nominees (who will be determined in February primaries), and an independent candidate, Spencer Zimmerman, whose ballot label will be “Trump Conservative.” Thanks to Independent Political Report for this news.
Schmitz needed 400 signatures to get on the ballot. He is the second American Solidarity Party nominee for a state legislative office to appear on a ballot with the party label. The first was Monica Sohler, who ran in 2017 for New Jersey’s legislature, Assembly District 6.
