On May 6, the New Hampshire Libertarian Party filed this brief in U.S. District Court in its ballot access case. The lawsuit is challenging the 2014 law that made it illegal to circulate the petition for a newly-qualifying party in an odd year.
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On May 6, the Oklahoma House passed HB 2181 by 83-0. It had passed the House on March 10, and had passed the Senate on April 22. But the Senate version was different than the House version, so it had to return to the House to see if the House agreed with the Senate amendments. Now the bill goes to Governor Mary Fallin, who is in her second term.
Assuming she signs it, Oklahoma will require 24,745 signatures for a newly-qualifying party for both 2016 and 2018. Without the bill, the 2016 requirement would have been 41,242. The 2014 requirement was 66,744. The new formula will be 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, whereas the old law is 5% of the last vote cast. Under the old law, the requirement skyrockets for midterm years and is lower in presidential years; this is the “see-saw” effect, but the new bill eliminates it.
UPDATE: here is a video of the House action, which lasts about 5 minutes. It consists of the author of the bill telling the House that he urges that the bill as amended by the Senate be passed by the House. He regrets that the Senate tripled the number of signatures, relative to the original bill, but says that is the best deal he can get. He also said that he would consider a bill in the next session to lower the number of signatures. Thanks to Rick Kissell for the link.
The New York Times has this story about the Working Families Party’s victory in the May 5 special legislative election in Brooklyn. By contrast, when the Working Families Party scored a more impressive win for the Connecticut State Senate on February 24, 2015, the Times did not mention that. The Connecticut victory was more impressive because the Connecticut Working Families nominee defeated a Democratic Party nominee, whereas in New York the Democrats had no nominee on the ballot.
On May 5, Alberta held an election for the provincial legislature. For the first time, the New Democratic Party won a majority in that body. See this story. The Alberta government been controlled by the Social Credit Party 1935-1971 and by the Progressive Conservative Party ever since, until today’s election. Thanks to Rick Kissell for the link.
The New York State Board of Elections’ web page is reporting election returns, as various precincts report their results for the special elections of May 5. Here is the link. As of 9:15 p.m., only fragmentary results are in, but they suggest that the Republican nominee is winning the U.S. House race in the 11th district, and the Working Families Party is winning the Assembly race, 43rd district.
To see the 43rd Assembly results, use the box in the upper left corner that now defaults to the U.S. House race. In the 43rd race, the “LYP” Party stands for “Love Yourself Party.”