On April 6, Congressmen Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) and Derek Kilmer (D-Washington) re-introduced their 2015 bill that restructures the Federal Election Commission. The 2015 bill, which did not pass, was HR 2931. The new bill doesn’t have a bill number yet. It shrinks the FEC from six commissioners to five, and says no more than two commissioners could be members of the same party. Thanks to the Center for Competitive Elections for this news.
On April 10, Kay Ivey became Governor of Alabama. She had been Lieutenant Governor, and the governor elected in 2014, Robert Bentley, recently resigned. Ivey is Alabama’s second woman governor. The first was Lurleen Wallace, wife of George Wallace. Lurleen was elected Governor in 1966. George Wallace was not permitted to run for re-election in 1966, due to term limits, so he arranged to help elect his wife.
It is not known if Governor Ivey feels that the state should hold a special U.S. Senate election this year. Jeff Sessions resigned as U.S. Senator from Alabama earlier this year, to become Attorney General. The Alabama election law says special elections should be held “forthwith”, but Governor Bentley opposed a special election for that seat until November 2018. The matter is currently being litigated in state court.
Here is the wikipedia page for Kay Ivey.
On April 7, Montana Governor Steve Bullock signed HB 288. It requires a filing fee of $1,740 for candidates who want to appear on a presidential primary ballot. The law already required a petition of 500 signatures, or else evidence that the candidate had raised enough money to qualify for primary season matching funds.
Here is a link to Kansas election returns, for the April 11 special U.S. House election. With all precincts counted (but not all ballots), the results are: Republican 52.53%; Democratic 45.75%; Libertarian 1.72%.
When this same seat was up in November 2016, the results were: Republican 60.67%; Democratic 29.61%; independent 6.91%; Libertarian 2.81%.
On April 11, North Carolina Representatives Ken Goodman (D-Rockingham) and Pricey Harrison (D-Greensboro) introduced HB 737. It converts North Carolina elections for Congress and state office to a top-two system. The bill does not provide for “preference” or “prefers” to appear on the ballot. Nor does it say that the ballot should carry an explanation that party labels on the ballot do not mean that the party approves of any candidate with that party’s label. Therefore, if enacted, it would run afoul of court precedents concerning freedom of association for political parties.
The bill does leave write-in space on the November ballot. However, candidates who filed to run in the May primary, and who didn’t place in the top two, would not be permitted to be write-in candidates in November.
The bill is ambiguous as to whether a candidate registered into an unqualified party would be allowed to have his or her party affiliation printed on the ballot. North Carolina voter registration forms have a blank line for “political party”, so any voter can register into any party he or she desires. However, North Carolina election officials always code voters who register into unqualified parties as non-affiliated, so probably if this bill passed, election officials would not print the party label for a member of an unqualified party.
The bill fails to re-define “political party”. Currently a party remains on the ballot if it polls 2% for President or Governor. However, the provision for 2% for Governor would no longer work, because no party would have nominees for Governor.
