On May 19, the Oklahoma legislature passed SB 1016. It alters the voter registration forms. Applicants will still be asked to choose a party, or independent status. But there will not longer be any checkboxes for any particular party. Applicants will write in the name of the party they wish to join. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.
On May 19, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove heard Libertarian Party of Kentucky v Grimes, e.d., 3:15cv-86. The issue is Kentucky’s failure to have any procedure for an unqualified party to transform itself into a qualified party in advance of any particular election. The oral argument lasted 90 minutes and the judge indicated he will rule fairly soon. The Constitution Party is a co-plaintiff. Another issue in the case is that the only way a group can become a qualified party is by polling 2% for President; the vote for all other offices doesn’t count. There were 25 people in the audience.
Utah election officials are sending letters to all independent voters, mentioning the upcoming primary (for office other than President). The letter asks if they wish a Democratic ballot, or a Republican ballot. The letter explains that if they want a Republican ballot, their registration record will be changed to list them as a Republican. The letter does not say this about the Democratic primary, because the Democratic Party lets independents vote in its primaries.
The Democratic Party has complained about the letter. See this story.
Utah has three other ballot-qualified parties: Libertarian, Constitution, and Independent American. Technically they also nominate by primary, but there are no primary contests for those three parties, because Utah only holds primaries when two competing candidates both show substantial support at a party caucus held before the primaries. The three smaller parties didn’t have any such contests this year.
Bill Whalen, of the Hoover Institution, has this commentary on the California U.S. Senate race and the top-two system. He is a Republican and was once part of Governor Pete Wilson’s administration. He says he has been a supporter of the top-two system in the past, but that this year, the system is failing the state, with regard to the U.S. Senate race.
He says that the three leading Republicans running for U.S. Senate this year each represent different shades of the Republican Party, and in a normal system, they would be debating each other over the direction the Republican Party should take. But because California has a top-two system, they don’t interact in debates or other public fora with each other. Instead, because each hopes to place second on June 7, they instead attack their Democratic opponents.
The piece would be better if Whalen did not refer to the top-two system as an “open primary.” “Open primary” has been defined in political science textbooks for over 100 years as a system in which, on primary day, any voter may choose any party’s primary ballot. But each party has its own primary ballot and its own nominees. In California, there are no party nominees or party primaries (except for President). In effect, California has a trial run general election in June, five months before the election itself. And people who don’t place first or second in the trial run are then barred from the election itself.
The South Dakota Libertarian Party believes it now has enough valid signatures on its petition for party status, and has submitted all the signatures to the Secretary of State. The state permits multiple submissions, so if for any reason there aren’t enough valid signatures, there is still time to collect more.
