Darcy Richardson has just written “Bernie: A Lifelong Crusade Against Wall Street and Wealth”. Here is the link to the book’s Amazon page. The book is 353 pages.
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This New York Times story says in the 8th paragraph from the bottom that Donald Trump enjoys more support among registered independents than he does among registered Republicans.
On August 22, the Kentucky Republican Party voted to use March caucuses, instead of the May presidential primary, to choose delegates to the national convention. The decision is a victory for U.S. Senator Rand Paul. See this story. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
The Sun Chronicle, a daily newspaper in Attleboro, Massachusetts, has this article on the 25 groups that have asked Massachusetts election officials to keep track of how many registered members they have.
The story doesn’t actually explain to its readers why Massachusetts lets groups file to have their registrations tallied. Starting in 1991, any group that has registration of at least 1% of the total state registration becomes a newly-qualified party. No group has ever managed to achieve 1%.
Other states in which unqualified parties can file to have their registrations tallied are Alaska, California, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, New Jersey, and New York. Sometimes the request must be accompanied with other requirements. New York only keeps the tally for groups that had a statewide candidate on the ballot in a gubernatorial election; Iowa only does it for groups that submit 950 signatures on a petition. Delaware and Louisiana keep track of registration in every group, whether that groups asks for a tally or not.
The Eugene, Oregon daily newspaper, the Register-Guard, here editorializes in favor of an idea first proposed by the Independent Party of Oregon. Currently the Democratic and Republican Parties of Oregon do not let independent voters vote in their primaries, but the Independent Party does. The Independent Party will hold a government-administered primary in 2016 for the first time, due to its new higher registration total.
Oregon has just switched to a system in which all adult citizens known to the state government automatically become registered, unless they opt out. In Oregon, all registered voters automatically receive a mail ballot.
Current law says these newly-registered voters will get a letter from the elections office, asking if they wish to become a registered member of any qualified party. The Independent Party says a better way to reach out to the newly-registered voters and determine their interest in being a member of any party is to send three primary ballots to these voters, Republican, Democratic, and Independent. If a newly-registered voter chooses to vote in one of the three primaries, that will be deemed to be that voter’s act of affiliating with that party.