Montana Bill to Increase Number of Signatures for New Parties is Defeated in House

Posted on by April 20, 2019
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On March 29, Montana HB 647 was defeated in the House by 43-57. It would have increased the number of signatures for a newly-qualifying party from 5,000 signatures, to 5% of the winning gubernatorial candidate’s vote in the last election. For 2020 that would have been 12,797 signatures.

Every Democrat voted for the bill, and every Republican except one, Geraldine Custer, voted against it. The Libertarian Party is on the ballot in Montana, but no other third parties are on. The Green Party tried to get on in 2018. It had enough valid signatures statewide, but after the Secretary of State put it on the ballot, the Democratic Party filed a challenge, and the State Supreme Court ruled that the party had failed to meet the distribution requirement. The Green Party has a federal lawsuit pending against the existing law. The basis for the lawsuit is the March petition deadline and the unequal distribution requirement.

If the bill had passed, the distribution requirement would have been made even more severe.

Democratic Party in Florida’s Most Populous County Wants to Persuade State Party to Let Independents Vote in Its Primaries

Posted on by April 20, 2019
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On April 19, the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party said it will try to persuade the state Democratic Party to let independent voters vote in Democratic primaries. Under the 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut, parties have the right to decide for themselves whether to let independents vote in their primaries.

Florida is the only state in the south (unless Kentucky is considered a southern state) in which independents can’t vote in partisan primaries. If the state Democratic Party does decide to let independents vote in its primaries, that would put pressure on the Florida Republican Party to do the same thing.

The Mimai-Dade County Party idea is from the county party’s new chairman, Steve Simeonidis, who is an attorney. Thanks to Michael Drucker for this news.

U.S. District Court Restores Local Initiative to Ballot of Salem, West Virginia

Posted on by April 19, 2019
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On April 19, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Kleeh, a Trump appointee, ordered the city of Salem, West Virginia, to restore a local initiative to the June 4, 2019 ballot. The order is oral and is not yet in writing. UPDATE: see this news story.

The city had removed an initiative to decriminalize marijuana even though it had enough valid signatures. City officials felt the initiative, if passed, would contradict state law and be invalid. But the proponents charged that it violates due process for the city to have taken that action. The case is Hyman v City of Salem, n.d., 1:19cv-75.

This decision is similar to one from last year concerning local initiatives in Portage County, Ohio. Thanks to Mark Brown for this news.

Rhode Island Senate Passes Presidential Tax Returns Bill

Posted on by April 19, 2019
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On April 10, the Rhode Island Senate passed SB 342 by 28-10. It requires presidential candidates to reveal their tax returns, or they can’t be on the ballot in either a presidential primary, or the general election. Here is a copy of the bill. The bill does not try to tell presidential electors that they can’t vote for a presidential candidate who hasn’t released tax returns.

Colorado Bill that Injures Ballot Access Passes Another Committee

Posted on by April 19, 2019
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On April 19, the Colorado House Appropriations Committee passed HB 19-1278. It had also passed the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on April 2. It now goes to the House.

It increases the number of signatures, for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties, for all office except president. The worst change is for statewide office, which goes from 1,000 signatures to 10,500, with the addition of a difficult congressional district distribution requirement.

More states have seen bills to make ballot access worse this year than at any time since 1971. Fortunately most of them have died, or appear unlikely to pass. The three that have already passed are in New York, Kentucky, and Arkansas. The latter two states made ballot access worse but have already been sued by the Libertarian Party over the 2019 changes.