On May 2, the Maine Secretary of State was instrumental in having LD 1571 introduced. It says that newly-qualifying parties may qualify by March of election years if they have 5,000 registered members. Also it says that qualified parties that have at least 5,000 registrants, but fewer than 50,000 registrants, may nominate by convention instead of by primary. The bill will be heard in committee on Monday, May 8.
On March 1, California SB 568 passed the Senate Appropriations Committee. It moves the primary for all office, in presidential years, from June to March.
The Indiana legislature adjourned for the year on April 22. Not a single election law bill passed. The most interesting election law bill was SB 418, which eased ballot access. It had passed the Senate Elections Committee but then the author, Senator Greg Walker (R-Columbus), withdrew it, although he says he will introduce it in 2018. He says he needs more time to persuade other legislators to support it.
Bills were introduced to tinker around the edges with the straight-ticket device, to authorize ranked-choice voting, and to have Indiana join the National Popular Vote Plan, but none of those bills passed either.
On April 29, the three candidates who are on the May 25 ballot for U.S. House in Montana’s special election debated each other. See this story. The three are Republican Greg Gianforte, Democrat Rob Quist, and Libertarian Mark Wicks. The story has a link to the hour-long debate itself, which was televised. Thanks to Independent Political Report for the link.
Nebraska LB 34 is now in effect in the state. It makes it easier for a party to remain on the ballot. On April 29, Governor Pete Ricketts let the bill go into effect. However, he didn’t sign it. Governors typically have three choices on a bill: they can sign it, let it become law without their signature, or veto it. Governors occasionally use the middle option when they don’t want to prevent a bill from going into effect, but they don’t completely approve of a bill.
The bill says a party remains on the ballot if it has at least 10,000 registrants. The old law, which this law supplements, said a party also remains on the ballot if it polls at least 5% for any statewide office at either of the last two elections. Therefore, there are now two means for a party to remain on the ballot instead of just one. Nebraska is one of 18 states which gives two methods for a party to remain on the ballot.
