On June 4, Hillary Clinton made these recommendations on what election law improvements would be desirable. She made these remarks at Texas Southern University in Houston. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the text.
3
On June 3, Independentvoting.org and its attorney, Harry Kresky, asked the Federal Election Commission to issue a new rule about general election presidential debates. Like the earlier request by Level the Playing Field, the request for a new rule seeks to expand entry into those debates. However, the IndependentVoting request points out flaws in the proposal submitted some months ago by Level the Playing Field. Here is the IndependentVoting submission.
Here is the final brief in Moore v Martin, the lawsuit that challenges the Arkansas petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates that was in effect in 2014 and also will be in effect in 2018. This is the reply brief of the plaintiffs. The U.S. District Court will now either issue an opinion, or rule that a trial is needed.
The challenged deadline is in March. As the Reply brief notes, last week the law was changed to make it even earlier, for 2016 but not other years. The new deadline is in November 2015.
On June 3, the Michigan legislature passed SB 329, which (assuming the Governor signs it) allows late-filing candidates for Flint Mayor and City Council to appear on the August 2015 non-partisan ballot. See this story.
Political scientist professor Alan I. Abramowitz and PhD student Steven Webster have published this essay about partisanship in the United States. The main point is to show that over half of Americans have strong hostility and dislike toward one major party. The dislike of one major party among these voters is stronger than their liking for the other major party. Increasingly, the United States is divided into two camps of voters who not only dislike one of the major parties, but dislikes their members as well.
The essay also asserts that only 10% of the electorate is truly independent.
The essay does not mention Federalist Papers No. 10, written by James Madison. Madison warned against having just two parties. He wrote that the United States would enjoy greater security if there were a greater variety of parties than just two. This point is in the last three paragraphs of Federalist No. 10. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link to the Abramowitz-Webster paper.