M. Francis Mirro has written this op-ed for the Albany Student Press, one of the nation’s oldest university newspapers. The Albany Student Press was founded in 1916, and is published at the State University of New York in Albany. Mirro writes that the U.S. needs more than two political parties.
The Los Angeles Times has this story about the California top-two system and how it may deprive the Democratic Party of winning U.S. House seats in the 39th and 49th districts, even though in a standard election system, Democrats would have a good chance of winning those seats.
On February 23, the South Dakota House passed HB 1286, in an amended version that is very different from the original bill. It lowers the petition to create a new party from 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 1% of the last gubernatorial vote. It says the petition is due on July 1 (existing law says the deadline is July 1 for a party that wants to run for certain offices, but late March if it wants to run for all offices). For 2018, 1% would be 2,775 signatures.
The bill says parties with registration under 2.5% of the state total would not nominate by primary. Instead, each candidate of a small qualified party (except the lesser statewide executive positions) must submit his or her own candidate petition, by July 1. If only one candidate from a particular party for a particular office submits a petition, that person is deemed to be that party’s nominee. If two candidates from the same party for the same office submit a petition, then the party state central committee chooses one of them. These minor party statewide candidate petitions are 1% of that party’s last vote for Governor and can only be signed by party members. If the party didn’t have a candidate for Governor at the last election, 250 signatures are required for statewide office, and only party members can sign. Alternatively, if the candidate doesn’t submit that type of petition, he or she can also submit a petition of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote in the state, and for that type of petition, any registered voter may sign.
The bill also improves the independent candidate deadline, moving it from April to July 1. UPDATE: see this Argus Leader newspaper story.
On February 23, the 3-judge U.S. District Court that is hearing the case on Pennsylvania U.S. House district boundaries refused to issue any immediate order disturbing the new boundaries that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had imposed last week. But it will consider doing that at a hearing on March 9, at 11 a.m. in Harrisburg. Here is the 3-page order.
It is peculiar that nothing was said in the order about the primary petition requirements. Pennsylvania requires U.S. House candidates to collect 1,000 signatures of party members. Petitioning for U.S. House primary candidates starts on Tuesday, February 27. But how can candidates collect signatures if they don’t know the boundaries of their districts? The petitions are due March 20.
Petitioning for primary ballots for other office this year runs from February 13 through March 6. The State Supreme Court moved the petitioning period for U.S. House, but even the relaxed dates for that office aren’t late enough.
On February 21, Florida state officials filed this brief in Hand v Scott, n.d., 4:17cv-128. The U.S. District Court had ruled on February 1 that the state’s process by which an ex-felon may ask the Governor to restore his or her voting rights is hopelessly arbitrary. The state says that, even given this order, the court cannot order general relief to ex-felons, but must only consider relief for the particular plaintiffs who filed the case.
