On February 6, the New York Assembly passed AB 8917. It says that in 2018 only, the primary for state and local partisan office will be September 13 instead of September 11. September 13 is a Thursday. New York has consistently avoided holding elections on September 11, ever since 2002.
On February 6, Russian election officials announced that eight candidates will appear on next month’s presidential election. They include incumbent Vladimir Putin, who is the only independent candidate running. The other seven are nominees of various political parties.
In the entire history of the United States, there has never been a presidential election in which more than seven candidates were on the ballot in enough states to be elected. As to the period in U.S. history before there were government-printed ballots, there was never an election in which private ballots were circulated in states containing a majority of the electoral college for more than seven candidates.
On February 5, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the application for a stay that had been requested last week by Pennsylvania state officials. As a result, the State Supreme Court order requiring quick redrawing of all U.S. House districts is in effect. If the legislature doesn’t draw new boundaries quickly, the Court will do the job. The new districts will be in effect for the May 2018 primary.
On February 5, the Indiana Senate defeated SB 328 by a vote of 17-31. It would have lowered the number of signatures for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. It would also have set up a procedure to let an unqualified party petition before it has chosen its nominees.
Although this is a discouraging outcome, this is the first time a ballot access improvement bill in Indiana has made even this headway. Although Indiana ballot access has been severe ever since 1983, only this year did a bill get introduced to reform it. Indiana is one of only four states in which Ralph Nader (who placed third in the presidential elections of 2000, 2004, and 2008) never managed to get on the ballot. The other three states have since then eased their ballot access laws. Thanks to Craig Marolf for this news.
Arthur Jones, a white supremacist, is the only person who filed petitions to be on the Republican primary ballot for the U.S. House, 3rd district. He needed 603 valid signatures. No one challenged his petition, so he is on the ballot and no one is running against him for the Republican nomination.
Five individuals did examine his petition, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections’ web page, so even during the challenge period, there was an awareness of Jones’ filing. See this story.
