On February 14, Arkansas SB 163 was sent to Governor Asa Hutchinson. It increases the number of signatures for a newly-qualifying party from 10,000 signatures, to 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, almost 27,000 signatures. In Arkansas, Governors only have five consecutive days after the bill reaches them to either sign or veto the bill, but Sundays and holidays don’t count, so he has until Thursday, February 21.
A Guam territorial court has dismissed a lawsuit concerning how to handle primary votes when voters cast votes in the primaries of two different parties. Election officials void those votes. The lawsuit had been filed to try to validate those votes, but it was dismissed on procedural grounds. See this story.
As previously reported here, yesterday the Indiana Senate defeated SB 571, the bill to ease the petitioning requirement for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. One Democratic State Senator, according to the article, said the voters would be confused if there were more candidates on the ballot. Yet ever since 2002, there have been three candidates for all statewide offices in Indiana, or fewer, on general election ballots. Here is the article.
The Democratic Party will hold its first presidential debate sometime in June 2019. The city and exact date haven’t been chosen. Candidates qualify by either being at 1% in three national polls, or receiving donations from 65,000 people, with the further requirement of 200 donors in each of 20 states.
In case more than 20 candidates meet these requirements, then an adjustment will be made to limit the debate to 20 candidates. That is such a large number of candidates, the first debate will be a two-day affair. Thanks to Political Wire for this news.
On February 14, the Indiana Senate defeated SB 571, which would have substantially eased ballot access for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. The vote was 16-31, with three Senators not voting.
The Republican Senators voted against the bill 13-25. The Democratic Senators voted against it 3-6.
