On February 13, the Arizona House Federalism, Property Rights & Public Policy Committee passed HCR 2022. If this bill passes the legislature, it would amend the State Constitution, so would go to a public vote in November 2018. It says that no more primaries are permitted for U.S. Senate. Instead, the only nominees in the November ballot for U.S. Senate would be four individuals chosen by state legislators. The bill does not explain whether write-ins would still be allowed in November for U.S. Senate.

The sponsors are Representative Travis Grantham (R-Gilbert) and Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley). The committee vote was 6-3.

The bill is clearly in violation of Williams v Rhodes, the U.S. Supreme Court decision which said that states cannot limit the general election ballot to just Republican and Democratic nominees. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.

A new political party in Great Britain, called the Renew Party, has already recruited candidates for the next Parliamentary election in 450 of the nation’s 650 districts, according to this story. The new party stands for keeping Great Britain in the European Union. Neither of the two major parties in Britain favor that policy.

ON February 16, radio talk show host Michael Smerconish interviewed State Senator Bob Krist for 10 minutes, about Nebraska ballot access. Smerconish supports independent candidates and opened the interview by expressing dismay that Krist had abandoned his independent run for Governor and instead is seeking the Democratic nomination. Hear the interview at this link.

The 2016 Nebraska law change for the number of signatures needed by non-presidential independent candidates changed the law from 4,000, to 10% of the number of registered voters. Confusion about the exact number required in 2018 is because the law does not indicate the date of the registration tally, to figure out the number. Apparently the requirement is dependent on when the petition is submitted. Nebraska has a new tally of registered voters every month. Although the two men seemed to believe the requirement is approximately 120,000, is the petition were submitted on the due date, chances are it would require 130,000. The petition is due September 1. Probably if someone did comply with the requirement, the state would be hard pressed to check the signatures in time, if the petition were submitted on the deadline.

Senator Krist praises the Nebraska Democratic Party for allowing independents to vote in its gubernatorial primary in 2018. Smerconish expressed surprise that the party was permitted to make that decision. Smerconish had not previously known about the 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut, which said that parties can decide for themselves whether to let independents vote in their primaries.