On May 17, California Assemblymember Rob Bonta withdrew his AB 22, even though it had passed the Assembly a few days earlier. It repeals an old law that says Communist Party members are not eligible to be state employees. See this story. Bonta said he is withdrawing the bill because it is causing mental anguish among some members of the Vietnamese community.
The law is not enforced. The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated all laws similar to this one decades ago.
Maine, and half the other states, let a candidate who petitions onto the November ballot choose any short partisan label that does not mimic the name of a qualified party. On May 18, the Maine House defeated LD 568. It would have eliminated the ability of such candidates to have any label on the ballot except “unenrolled”. The vote was 71 in favor of the bill and 76 against.
On May 15, the California Assembly passed AB 837 by 58-20. It provides for large signs in all primary polling places, telling independent voters which party primary ballots they are free to choose.
Ever since 1920, the Clerk of the U.S. House has published a booklet of election returns for federal office. The 2016 booklet is now published. The title is “Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 8, 2016.” It is 85 pages.
It isn’t very useful for the presidential election. It does not name any presidential candidates; instead it reports the vote for president strictly by ballot label. Therefore, when two candidates both with the label “independent” are on the ballot in a state, it lumps their vote together. Also it has errors. It lumps most of the Louisiana presidential candidates together under the label “other.”
But, the booklet is very useful for the congressional election returns.
The Federal Election Commission always published a book of election returns that is more complete, accurate, and useful. However the FEC will not have its election returns book out until August 2017. It will be called “Federal Elections 2016.”
Congressional Quarterly publishes the most complete election returns. Its book will be called “America Votes 2016” or “America Votes Volume 32”. However it will not be in print until December 2017. It will contain maps of the congressional districts, and primary returns as well as general election returns, and will include gubernatorial election returns as well as federal office. It will have the statewide office vote by county, instead of just the state totals.
On May 16, the Washington, D.C. city council passed B22-0284. It moves the non-presidential primary from September to the third Tuesday in June. This doesn’t really represent a change, because the 2016 primary for president and all other office was held in June. But the existing law (before this bill passed) had said that, starting in 2018, that primary would move to September. The Mayor hasn’t signed the bill yet, but is expected to sign it.
Unlike the pending New York bill to move the primary, the District of Columbia bill does not alter or disturb the petition deadline for independent candidates, which will continue to be in August. Thanks to Electionline for the news about the D.C. bill.
