On April 28, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin signed HB 458. It automatically registers every adult citizen known to live in Vermont. Persons who are signed up automatically are notified, and then given a choice to de-register if they wish.
Vermont does not have registration by party, so there is no problem with determining whether such voters want to choose to enroll in a party. The bill takes effect July 1, 2017. Other states with automatic registration are Oregon, Colorado, and California.
On April 28, the Oklahoma Senate again passed SB 896, the bill that lowers the vote test for a party to remain on the ballot from 10% to 2.5%. The vote was 26-14. The bill had already passed the Senate in March, and then it had passed the House. But the House had amended the effective date, so the bill needed another vote in the Senate to agree to the amendment. Assuming the Governor signs it, the only states that will still have vote tests of 10% are New Jersey and Virginia. Two other states, Alabama and Pennsylvania, have even higher tests. But the other 46 states will be at 5% or less.
All of the “No” votes were Republicans, except that one Democrat, Senator Kevin Matthews, also voted “No.” The bill takes effect November 1, 2016.
In 2012, the Libertarian Party polled over 2.5% for President in New Mexico and Montana, and polled 2.48% in Alaska. It is difficult for any third party to poll as much as 2.5% for President, but not out of the question, especially in 2016, with so much voter discontent for the likely major party nominees. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.
Looking back in history, if the 2.5% had existed in the law instead of the actual vote test (which was 5% 1913-1974 and 10% afterwards), the change would not have made any difference in any election more recent than 1934, when the Socialist Party got 2.66% for Governor. The Reform Party got 10.84% in 1996 and 1.21% in 1998. The American Party got 2.30% for President in 1972, and 20.32% in 1968. The change would also have made a difference in 1924, when the Progressive Party got 7.79%.
Courthouse News Service has an article about a lawsuit filed on April 27 by Larry Klayman. The lawsuit, filed in Florida state court, is difficult to understand from this article. Klayman seems to be arguing that the Florida Republican Party delegates to Cincinnati must vote for Donald Trump on all ballots, not just the first three ballots.
Nick Baumann has this interesting story on Huffington Post about write-ins for President in the general election. The story’s emphasis is on Donald Trump’s supporters, many of whom say if Trump isn’t the Republican nominee, they will write him in on their November ballots.
On April 26, U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock set a hearing date in Libertarian Party of Maine v Dunlap, 2:16cv-2. This may be an opportunity for the Libertarian Party to explain why putting the party on the 2016 ballot would not create “chaos.” On April 25, Judge Woodcock had ruled that he would not put the party on the ballot because it would create “chaos”, but that he was not at that time ruling on whether the December 1, 2015 deadline was unconstitutionally early.
