Nebraska State Senator Sue Crawford (D-Bellevue) has introduced LB 211. It makes elections for county offices non-partisan.
3
The New York State Board of Elections has posted the February 1, 2019 registration data. Percentages (for active voters) are: Democratic 50.23%, Republican 22.63%, Independence 3.79%, Conservative 1.26%, Working Families .36%, Green .23%, Libertarian .08%, Women’s Equality .06%, Reform .02%, independent 21.34%. The SAM Party still didn’t have any registered members as of the date this data was compiled, but it has only just now been added to the form, so it should soon have some members.
At the last tally, for November 1, 2018, the percentages were: Democratic 49.94%, Republican 22.76%, Independence 3.83%, Conservative 1.26%, Working Families .36%, Green .24%, Libertarian .07%, Women’s Equality .05%, Reform .02%, independent 21.48%. The state web page does not have the totals for the Women’s Equality and Reform Parties, which are no longer ballot-qualified, but the state still tallies them. Thanks to William Stevenson for the link.
The Ninth Circuit has set out a briefing schedule for Citizens for Fair Representation v Padilla, 18-17458. The organizations and voters challenging the huge population of California legislative districts must file the opening brief by May 8. The state brief is then due June 7.
Among the groups challenging the current districts are two small cities, both in the Sacramento Valley. They are the cities of Williams and Colusa.
On February 4, the Indiana Senate Elections Committee passed SB 571, which lowers the number of signatures for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. The vote was 5-2, with all Republicans at the meeting voting “yes” and the two Democrats voting “no.”
The bill lowers the statewide petition from 44,934 signatures (2% of the last vote cast for Secretary of State) to exactly 4,500 signatures.
On January 28, the New York Assembly passed AB 2570. It lowers the number of signatures to get on primary ballots, for 2019 only, to just one-fourth of the normal number of signatures for primary ballot access. It applies to all partisan office except offices in New York city.
An identical bill, SB 2862, is pending in the State Senate. The rationale for the bills is that this is the first year since the mid-1970’s that the primary has been in June. Candidates running in primaries are having trouble organizing their petition drives this year, because they aren’t accustomed to such an early petitioning period. The bill doesn’t apply to New York city because the bill’s sponsors don’t believe it is as difficult to get signatures in New York city because the population is so much denser.