West Virginia Ballot Access Bill Introduced

West Virginia Delegate Pat McGeehan has introduced HB 2169. It eases the definition of “political party.” Current law says it is a group that polled 1% for Governor. The bill changes that to any statewide state office.

Also, the bill says a qualified party is also one that has at least 5,000 registered voters. Currently the Libertarian and Green Parties are on the ballot, because they both polled at least 1% for Governor in 2016 (West Virginia gubernatorial elections are only in presidential years). In West Virginia, the name of the Green Party is the Mountain Party. Thanks to Jeff Becker for this news.

H.R. 1 Provision on Making Presidential Candidate Tax Returns Public

H.R. 1, the bill favored by almost all Democrats in Congress, has a provision concerning the income tax returns of presidential candidates. It applies only to the presidential nominees of parties that polled at least 25% of the vote in the last presidential election. It says that the nominees of those parties should submit their income tax returns to the FEC. If a nominee does not do that, then the FEC is authorized to ask the Secretary of the Treasury for that candidate’s tax returns, and to make them public. That part of the bill starts on page 566. It is Title X, the very last part of the bill.

H.R. 1 Would Make it Far Tougher for Presidential Candidates to Get Primary Season Matching Funds

HR 1, the bill supported by almost all Democrats in the U.S. House, would make it far more difficult for presidential candidates to receive primary matching funds. Current law requires the candidate to receive $5,000 in small donations in each of 20 states. The bill changes that to $25,000 from each of 20 states. The bill also lowers the amount any individual can donate for purposes of qualification, from $250 to $200. Here is the 571-page bill. The part on primary season matching funds starts on page 422. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link to the bill. It still isn’t posted to the web page for Congress.

Libertarian Party Sets a New Record for Number of States with Legislative Candidates

In 2018, the Libertarian Party had candidates for the state legislature on the ballot in all but five states. This was the first time any party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, had legislative candidates on the ballot in that many states, since 1916. The five states with no Libertarians on the ballot for legislature in 2018 were Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, and North Dakota.

This excludes the states that don’t have legislative elections in even years, which are Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia.

All of the 2018 Libertarian candidates had the ballot label “Libertarian” except for the Tennessee candidates, who had “independent.”

The Libertarian Party had legislative candidates in all but six states in 2000, which is the closest any third party had come in previous years.

In 2016, there were eleven states that had legislative elections in which the Libertarians had no legislative candidates: Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wyoming. There were 14 such states in 2014; 14 in 2012; 12 in 2010; 15 in 2008; 19 in 2006; 9 in 2004; 7 in 2002; 14 in 1998; and 11 in 1996.

Arizona Government Defends Decision Not to Hold a Special U.S. Senate Election to Fill McCain Seat Until 2020

On January 11, attorneys for the Arizona state government filed this brief in Tedards v Ducey, 2:18cv-4241. The issue is whether the state should hold a special election to fill Senator John McCain’s seat earlier than November 2020. McCain died in August 2018. The state says it has three interests in not holding a special election in 2019: (1) to save taxpayer money; (2) a special election would have low turnout; (3) there wouldn’t be much time for a candidate to raise money for a campaign, so having a special election would favor wealthy candidates.