South Carolina Representative Bill Taylor (R-Aiken) has introduced HB 3129. It bans fusion. Currently, South Carolina, New York, and Connecticut, are the three states in which disaggregated fusion is used frequently. “Disaggregated fusion” means that the ballot lets a voter choose which party label to support, when a candidate is nominated by two parties. In 2018, minor parties that nominated some major party nominees were the Working Families Party and the American Party,
On January 18, the Maryland Board of Elections determined that the Bread and Roses Party has enough valid signatures. It will be a qualified party in 2020 and 2022. Most of its signatures were collected in 2018. The party’s founder, Jerome Segal, wanted to run for U.S. Senate in 2018, but the petition wasn’t completed in time for the 2018 election, and also Segal was ineligible to be his party’s nominee because he had run in the Democratic primary for the same office in 2018. Thanks to Steve Rossignol for this news.
Oklahoma Representative Tammy West (R-Putnam) has introduced HB 2525. It eases the number of signatures, for statewide office, for petitions in lieu of the filing fee. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news. If the bill passed, the number of signatures in lieu of filing fee would be equal to the number of dollars required for the fee.
The Colorado Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee will hear SB 19-42 on Wednesday, January 23. This is the National Popular Vote Plan bill.
The Los Angeles Times has this op-ed by Garry South, a California political consultant and a former staffer for Democratic Governor Gray Davis. South writes to debunk the idea that the large number of registered independent voters in California are material for a new political party.
