Another Wyoming bill to prevent voters from switching parties during the two months before a primary is moving. SF 160 passed the Agriculture Committee on January 30. A very similar bill, SF 32, had been defeated last month in the Corporations, Elections, and Political Subdivisions by one vote. So, proponents of the idea then introduced a new bill, SF 160, and sent it to a different committee.

A somewhat similar bill in the House is HF 106.

In other Wyoming legislative news, on January 29, SF 97 was defeated in the Senate Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee. It would have provided that all qualified parties nominate by primary. Current law says small qualified parties nominate by convention, and larger ones by primary.

California State Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) has introduced SB 212. It would let non-charter counties, and non-charter cities, use ranked choice voting to elect their own officers. Currently only charter cities and charter counties can do that.

A similar bill was vetoed by former Governor Jerry Brown, but of course Brown is no longer Governor. Thanks to Dave Kadlecek for this news.

The Arkansas House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs will hear SB 163 on Wednesday, February 6, at 10 a.m., in room 151. This is the bill, which has already passed the Senate, that increases the number of signatures for a newly-qualifying party from 10,000 signatures, to 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, which would be almost 27,000 signatures. The bill does not affect the deadline, which is in January of election years. Nor does the bill alter the time permitted to collect the signatures, which is three months. UPDATE: the hearing will be at 1:30 pm.

If the bill is signed into law, Arkansas law for new parties will be virtually identical to what it was in 2006, when it was declared unconstitutional in Green Party of Arkansas v Daniels.