A bill is pending in each house of the Oklahoma legislature to abolish the straight-ticket device. Last month the Senate bill, SB 51, had been introduced. The new bill in the House is HB 1919 by Representative Derrel Fincher (R-Bartlesville), who is in his first term. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.
Oklahoma Representative Sean Roberts (R-Hominy) has introduced HB 2338. It moves the deadline for candidates to file in the primary from April to January. That would also automatically move the deadline for non-presidential independent candidates from April to January. Here is the bill.
The bill is impractical, because the deadline for a new party to submit its petition in 2020 will be on February 28, and if HB 2338 were passed, it would be too late for a new party that filed on the deadline to have any candidates in its primary. Oklahoma provides that all parties, even new ones, must nominate by primary. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.
Sponsors have been found for bills to ease ballot access barriers in Georgia and Kansas. In Georgia, Representative Dar’shun Kendrick (D-Lithonia) will introduce a bill easing the petition requirements. She is an attorney.
In Kansas, the Green Party believes it has found a sponsor for a bill to lower the party petition from 2% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 1%. The bill will also expand the petitioning period from six months to one year. Except for Americans Elect, no one has successfully qualified as a new party in Kansas since 1998, the year the U.S. Taxpayers Party completed the petition (that party is now known as the Constitution Party, and it went off the ballot in Kansas in 2002).
The Ventura County Reporter has this interview with Steve Frank, one of the candidates for state chair of the California Republican Party. Frank strongly criticizes the top-two system in this interview. The California Republican Party state convention will be in Sacramento February 22-24.
On January 17, the West Virginia House Judiciary Committee passed HB 2008. It changes the election system for Justice of the Supreme Court. Currently the state holds non-partisan elections for that office in November of even years. The bill would move these elections to the May primary, and if no one received at least 40%, there would be a runoff in November.
In 2018, there were two vacancies on the court. At each election, ten candidates filed, and the winners were seated even though neither had received as much as 40%. Here is a copy of the bill.
