On February 27, New Mexico SB 205 passed the Senate Rules Committee. It provides that, on primary election day, independent voters may choose any party primary ballot. Under current law, only party members may vote in a party primary.
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On February 22, Iowa Representative Bobby Kaufmann withdrew HF 6. This is the bill that would have eliminated the checkoff on the state income tax form that is used by taxpayers to send a small donation to the political party of the taxpayer’s choice. The bill had passed a subcommittee but had made no further headway. It is not known why Representative Kaufmann withdrew his bill.
The January 1, 2017 B.A.N. print issue carried election returns for the eight presidential candidates who got the most votes in November 2016. Unfortunately the internet version of that print issue chopped off the far right-hand column and Rocky De La Fuente’s votes are not posted. He received 33,136 votes, which is clear from the print version on paper, but not the internet version.
The February 1, 2017 B.A.N. print version has another 24 presidential candidates who were on the ballot in at least one state and received at least 1,000 votes.
For the sake of completeness, here are the final seven presidential candidates who were on the ballot somewhere but who did not get as many as 1,000 votes. They are:
1. Joseph Maldonado, independent, 962 votes.
2. Ryan Scott, independent, 751 votes.
3. Rod Silva, Nutrition Party, 751 votes.
4. Princess Jacob, Loyal, Trustworthy, Compassion, 749 votes.
5. Jerry White, Socialist Equality, 475 votes.
6. Bradford Lyttle, U.S. Pacifist Party, 382
7. Frank Atwood, Approval Voting Party, 337.
Thanks to WaunaKeegan for help with this compilation.
On February 25, the Utah Republican Party changed its mind, and decided to continue to sue over the recent law that lets candidates petition for a spot on the primary ballot, even if they haven’t shown substantial support at a party nominating convention. See this story.
The Republican Party filed the lawsuit in January 2016, and lost in U.S. District Court. Utah Republicans are very uncomfortable with the law, which was passed in 2014. Every state has procedures for candidates to get on a primary ballot even if they lack support at a party meeting, but Utah has not had such a procedure in the past, and Republicans strongly desire to limit candidates in its primary to only those with at least 35% endorsement at a party convention. The lawsuit is Utah Republican Party v Herbert, Tenth Circuit number 16-4058.
On February 22, the North Carolina House passed HB 100. It makes local judicial elections partisan instead of non-partisan. Assuming the bill passes, all judicial elections in the state will be partisan. Already State Supreme Court elections, and State Appeals Court elections, are partisan.
The bill says independent candidates for local judicial office need a petition of 2% of the number of registered voters. This is lower than the existing requirement for independent candidates for legislature and U.S. House. Independents for those offices need 4% of the number of registered voters. The 4% standard is so difficult, no independent candidate for U.S. House has ever appeared on a North Carolina general election ballot, and only two independents ever appeared for State Senate.