February 15 at 1 p.m. is the deadline for qualifying for the April 11 Georgia special election to fill the vacant U.S. House seat (sixth district). Eighteen candidates qualified: eleven Republicans, 5 Democrats, and 2 independents. Candidates in special elections need no petition and just pay a filing fee. See this story. Thanks to Don Webb for the link.
This Orlando Sentinel article of February 14 says that the Secretary of State has disqualified the Independent Party from its qualified status, and has converted all its registered members to independent voters. The reason was that the party did not use a Certified Public Accountant for its 2014 audit.
Courts in New York, New Jersey, Colorado and Oklahoma have ruled that election officials must let voters register into unqualified parties that are active in elections. The issue has never been litigated in Florida. Thanks to Bill Lussenheide for the link.
California holds a special election to fill the vacant U.S. House seat, 34th district, on April 4. Twenty-three candidates filed to be on the ballot. Here is the list. The Secretary of State has not yet determined which candidates will be on the ballot, because each candidate needs 40 signatures, but the list will be final on February 15.
The candidates who filed are 19 Democrats, one Republican, one Green, one Libertarian, and one independent. If no one gets 50% on April 4, there will be a run-off in June.
In November 2016, only two candidates filed to be on the ballot. They were both Democrats. The seat is empty because the incumbent resigned to become Attorney General of California. UPDATE: all 23 candidates are on the ballot; they all had valid petitions.
On February 13, the Montana House Judiciary Committee defeated the National Popular Vote Plan bill, 12-7. See this story.
Georgia holds a special U.S. House election on April 18. So far, five Republicans, two Democrats, and one independent has filed, although filing doesn’t close until one p.m. on February 15. See this story. Georgia special U.S. House elections are non-partisan and parties don’t have nominees, although any candidate can have a party label on the ballot. No candidate needs a petition in Georgia special elections.
