On February 22, the Utah House Government Operations Committee passed HB 349 by a vote of 8-1. It provides that Utah would use Instant Runoff Voting for all primaries. Thanks to Steve Chessin for this news.
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On February 8, an Indiana state trial court ruled that Allen County officials did not break any Indiana election law when they left a candidate on the November 8, 2016 ballot, even though he had died four days before the election. See this story. Roy Buskirk was a Republican Party nominee for county council-at-large, and he was re-elected. Because he had died, the Republican Party was permitted to choose his replacement.
On February 15, the Tennessee Libertarian Party asked the Secretary of State to rule that it is a qualified party, based on the Gary Johnson vote last year. Johnson polled 70,397 votes in Tennessee last November. The law says a group needs to poll 5% of the last gubernatorial vote, for any statewide race, to become or retain status as a qualified party. The last gubernatorial election in Tennessee was in November 2014, and 5% of the 2014 gubernatorial vote is 67,687.
The law says a party must have an officer in every county, and the party waited to send the letter until it had achieved that goal. Tennessee has 95 counties.
Section 2-1-104 of the Tennessee election law defines “party” to be “a political party at least one of whose candidates for an office to be elected by voters of the entire state received a number of votes equal to at least 5% of the total number of votes cast for gubernatorial candidates in the most recent election of governor” or a group that submits a petition of 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote.
Tennessee hasn’t had any qualified parties, other than the Republican and Democratic Parties, since George Wallace’s American Party lost its status in November 1972. Not counting Tennessee, there are only eight states with no ballot-qualified parties other than the Democrats and Republicans.
The New Hampshire Senate Committee that handles election law bills has approved SB 114, which bans fusion. It adds a sentence to the election law saying a candidate may only accept the nomination of one party.
Fusion in New Hampshire is already difficult. It can only be attained when a candidate wins the primary of the party he or she is not a member of, by write-ins in the primary. However, every year, there are at least a few legislative candidates who win the nomination of two parties.
The bill’s author is Senator Dan Feltes (D-Concord). Thanks to Darryl Perry for this news.
Illinois State Senator Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) has introduced SB 780, to use Instant Runoff Voting for all state office. Here is the text. Thanks to Electionline for this news.