On February 19, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson signed SB 163, the bill that increases the petition requirement for newly-qualifying parties from 10,000 signatures to 3% of the last gubernatorial vote.
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The Arizona Green Party has begun petitioning to get back on the ballot for the 2020 election. It needs 31,685 signatures by February 28, 2020. This is the highest number of signatures that Arizona has ever required for new parties; the number is high because turnout was so strong in November 2018. If the party succeeds, this will be the most difficult petition requirement that the Green Party will have overcome since 2010, when it got on in Texas.
Back in 1968, when the Arizona law was different, it was possible to put a new party on the ballot in Arizona with just 358 valid signatures.
On February 18, three election law bills passed the New Mexico House State Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee. All three now go to the Judiciary Committee. They are HB 93 (switching from a closed primary to a semi-closed primary), HB 425 (to replace presidential electors who “disobey”), and HB 407 (the omnibus election law bill).
HB 407 lowers the signature requirement for independent candidates from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 2%.
Carl Pope, former head of the Sierra Club, has this opinion piece at Salon. He says that anyone who runs outside the two major parties for president “is an enemy of democracy.” The chance that Howard Schultz might run for president motivated this story. Pope does not even mention the idea of Ranked Choice Voting. UPDATE: the title of the piece has been changed, so that instead of proclaiming that Schultz is an enemy of democracy, it asks if he is, and the title ends with a question mark.
The only reason Maine became the first state to use Ranked Choice Voting for federal office is because Maine had two gubernatorial elections in a row in which an independent candidate for Governor was perceived as a “spoiler.” Democrats hold both houses of the legislature and the Governorship in 14 states. If Democrats really believe that a strong independent candidate for President will be a “spoiler”, then rationally they should pass bills for Ranked Choice Voting. And for prominent voices like Pope to write an entire essay without even mentioning this idea is incomprehensible.
Jacobin Magazine has this thorough and interesting accout of Lyndon LaRouche’s history of political activism, with emphasis on the early years. The article is by Scott McLemee.