Last month the Arizona legislature passed HB 2608, which makes it more difficult for a member of a small qualified party to get on the primary ballot. On April 14, the Governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, signed the bill. It sharply increases the number of signatures for a candidate of a small qualified party to get on the primary ballot. However, it has no effect on parties that have ballot-qualified for less than four years, so it has no impact on the Green Party. See this story.
On Sunday, April 12, C-SPAN broadcast a live 40-minute interview with Nicholas Sarwark, national chair of the Libertarian Party. Most of the session involved questions phoned him for Sarwark from the live audience. Sarwark appeared on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal.
Among the fifty most populous nations in the world, the only two countries in which only two political parties are represented in the nation’s legislative lower house are the United States and Nigeria. If “two-party system” is defined to mean a nation with only two parties represented in the national legislature, then it is clear that the “two-party system” has been rejected by governments and voters all over the world.
Among the fifty most populous countries, only one country bans all political parties and holds no legislative elections whatsoever: Saudi Arabia. Only one of the fifty most populous countries has non-partisan elections for the national legislature: Iran. Although political parties, both legal and illegal, exist in Iran, the election system is non-partisan.
Two countries ban all political parties except the ruling party: China and Vietnam. The May 1 2015 printed Ballot Access News will have a chart showing the number of parties represented in each country’s lower legislative body, although the chart will only include the 50 most populous countries.
Greg Orman, an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Kansas last year who came fairly close to winning, has this op-ed in the Concord Monitor. It advocates more inclusive presidential general election debates.
On April 9, the Montana House State Administration Committee passed SB 279. It had already passed the Senate. It says that when a vacancy occurs in a U.S. Senate seat, there should be a special election to fill the vacancy. Current law says the Governor appoints someone who serves until the next regularly-scheduled congressional election.
