The Minnesota Secretary of State has determined that petitions for statewide office for the Green, Independence, Grassroots, and Legal Marijuana Now Parties have enough valid signatures. Last week a similar decision was made for a Minnesota Libertarian statewide petition. Thanks to Oliver Steinberg for this news. The Green Party now has statewide candidates on the November ballot, or is a qualified party, in 25 states and the District of Columbia.
Even though the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Ohio’s law on purging voters on June 11, the Ohio Secretary of State says he will not purge any voters for the remainder of 2018. See this story. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On June 12, the California Secretary of State determined that an initiative to divide California into three states has enough signatures, and will appear on the November 6 ballot.
On June 12, Maine voters were asked whether they want to keep ranked choice voting. With 79% of the vote counted so far, ranked choice voting is winning with 54%. Assuming that trend continues, Maine will use ranked choice voting in November 2018 for U.S. Senate and U.S. House.
Whether Maine uses ranked choice voting for state office in future general elections depends on whether a future session of the legislature passes a constitutional amendment to provide for that.
South Carolina has always been an open primary state, since primaries were begun. There is no voter registration by party, and any voter is free to choose any party’s primary ballot.
The South Carolina Republican Party’s ballot for June 12 asks voters who choose the Republican primary ballot, “Do you believe that voters should have the option to choose to affiliate with a political party when they register to vote or change their voter registration in South Carolina?”
The measure is passing with 82%. Here is a link to the election returns. Scroll down to the very end. The voter registration question is Republican Question One. The other Republican question, question two, concerns taxes.
