On Saturday, February 10, the New Mexico State Senate passed SB 178, which changes the procedures by which parties choose Lieutenant Governor nominees. Currently Governor and Lieutenant Governor are elected as a team in November. But in primary season, they are not teamed. The bill would end the ability of anyone to file in a party primary for Lieutenant Governor. Instead, after the primary, the gubernatorial nominee would choose a running mate. See this story.
The Sioux Falls daily newspaper Argus Leader, the largest paper in South Dakota, has this detailed look at ballot access for minor parties and independents in South Dakota.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, a Democrat, has issued an executive order that whenever election administrators buy new vote-counting machines, they must be machines with a paper audit trail. See this story. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
The Georgia Libertarian Party has nominated Martin Cowen for U.S. House, 13th district. There has not been any minor party on the ballot in a regularly-scheduled U.S. House election in Georgia since 1942. Cowen is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit filed last year against the ballot access law for U.S. House elections. See this story.
On February 5, the Kentucky legislature passed HB 157. The vote was unanimous in both chambers. It lets individuals give $5,000 to a minor party. The old law said individuals could give that much to a major party, but not to any other party. That policy was struck down last year in U.S. District Court in Shickel v Dilger. The state did not appeal.
