On January 31, U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Blake denied the Maryland Libertarian Party’s request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, as to whether the state should leave the party on the voter registration cards. This means the state will print new cards that list only the Democratic, Republican, and Bread & Roses Parties as choices. However, the form contains a blank line for applicants to register into some other party.
On January 30, the Washington State Senate passed SB 5273. It moves the date of the presidential primary from the fourth Tuesday in May to the second Tuesday in March.
Washington does not have registration by party. The bill says that when a voter asks for a particular party’s presidential primary ballot, that voter must sign a statement of membership in that party. The record of which voters choose which party’s primary vote will be public. Thanks to FrontloadingHQ for this news.
On August 21, 2018, the Montana Supreme Court removed the Green Party from the 2018 ballot. However, the court at that time did not explain why it did that.
On January 30, 2019, the Court explained why it acted as it did. Use this link to read the opinion. Choose “Active Dockets”. When that opens, enter this case number: DA 18-0414. After you click on the link, then click in the right-hand column on “opinion”, near the top. Thanks to Jim Riley for advice on the link.
Meanwhile, the Green Party is in federal court, arguing that the ballot access law is unconstitutional, on the basis that the deadline is too early and the distribution requirement is unequal.
Nine Hawaii State Senators are sponsoring SB 954, to provide for a top-two system. The bill is badly worded. It says that it applies to all elective office, which implies that it includes president. Yet Hawaii doesn’t have a presidential primary, and the bill doesn’t provide for a presidential primary.
Also, the bill does not redefine “political party”. Existing law defines parties in terms of the vote for their nominees. Because there are no party nominees in a top-two system, none of the state’s political parties would be able to meet the vote test, because no party would have any nominees.
Also, the bill’s sponsors don’t understand that top-two systems are unconstitutional unless the ballot language on party labels has wording to tell voters that the party name doesn’t mean the candidate is a party nominee. That is why the California and Washington ballots put “prefers” or “party preference: (whatever)” on the ballot next to the name of each candidate.
New Hampshire Representative Kristina Schultz, chief sponsor of HB 643, will amend her bill so that it does not injure ballot access. The purpose of HB 643 is to move the non-presidential New Hampshire primary from September to June. The original bill moved deadlines relating to independent and minor party petitions from August to May, but this was an inadvertent characteristic of the bill. Schultz said she had not realized those petition deadlines are tied to the date of the primary, so her amendment will fix that problem. Thanks to Chip Spangler for this news.
