The big television networks have traditionally paid for exit polls. On May 6, they canceled exit polls for the Kentucky Democratic presidential primary, and for both major party primaries in California and New Jersey.
40
The Hill has this article by Alexander Bolton about anti-Trump Republicans who are still interested in sponsoring an independent presidential candidate. Toward the end of the article, it quotes a leader of this group as saying that the Texas independent presidential petition deadline is vulnerable to a court challenge. Texas has a May 9 independent presidential deadline, but a June 23 deadline for independent candidate petitions for other office. No other state has an independent presidential deadline as early as May.
Mary Matalin, interviewed on television on May 5, mentioned that she had changed her voter registration from Republican to Libertarian that very day. She lives in Louisiana, a state with partisan registration. See the entire short interview here. She was careful to say that she still may vote Republican in November, but that she wanted to make a public statement of her libertarian views and a statement that she is not a knee-jerk Republican partisan. Thanks to Eric Garris for the link.
On May 5, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed SB 896. This bill lowers the number of votes for a party to remain on the ballot, from 10% for the office at the top of the ballot (President or Governor) to 2.5%. Although this is still more stringent than the median state, it is the lowest percentage of the vote that Oklahoma has required since 1913. The vote test between 1913 and 1974 was 5% at either of the last two elections; then it went to 10% at the last election.
This bill probably would not have been introduced, if the Libertarian Party had not got on the ballot this year. No other party qualified this year. It is likely that the legislature would not have been interested in lowering the vote test, if there had been no clear beneficiary for such a change. Thanks to E. Zachery Knight for this news.
On May 4, the Louisiana House defeated HB 598. It would have allowed ex-felons to register to vote when they are released from prison. Current law says they can’t register to vote until they are not only out of prison, but off parole or probation. See this story. The story says Louisiana has a greater percentage of its population incarcerated than any other state. Thanks to Electionline for the link.