On March 1, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson signed HB 1532. It moves the deadline for a newly-qualifying party to choose its nominees from November of the year before the election, to May of the election Year. This is the most significant ballot access improvement that has been made by any legislature so far in 2017.
On February 28, the Kentucky Libertarian Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Libertarian Party of Kentucky v Grimes, 16-1034. The issue is the state’s definition of “political party.” The only method to become a qualified party in Kentucky is to poll 2% of the vote for President. Thus, it is impossible for a group to ever become a qualified party in advance of any particular election, and it is impossible for it to become a qualified party in a midterm year, or an odd year.
The only other state with this characteristic is Washington.
It happens that the Kentucky Libertarian Party is now a qualified party, because it polled over 2% for President in November 2016, but that does not blunt the logic of the party’s complaint.
On February 28, Paul Merritt, an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in California in the June 2016 primary, filed a request for reconsideration in Merritt v Padilla, U.S. District Court, central district, 8:16cv-606. California has a Voters Guide, which is postally mailed to all registered voters in advance of a federal or state election. The law permits candidates who are willing to pay to have a statement in the Guide, and does not restrict the content, except to require that candidates not discuss their opponents.
Merritt’s statement, which he paid for, said he is a registered independent. The Secretary of State deleted that information from the heading of his statement. A U.S. District Court ruled earlier this year that because it is legal in California to prevent independent candidates from having the ballot label “independent”, therefore it is also legal for the state to prevent this label from being in the heading of a candidate’s statement in the Guide.
The motion for reconsideration points out that when the 9th circuit upheld the ban on “independent” on the ballot, it said the ban doesn’t do much harm because a candidate has an “alternative way” to express his or her views in the Guide. Therefore, it is obvious the ballot and the Guide have different levels of government control. The Guide has less room for government control than the ballot.
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.
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.
