Texas Representative Jason Villalba (R-Dallas) has introduced HB 1444. It deals with the straight-ticket device. It says that in counties with a population of over 1,000,000, the straight-ticket device would not encompass partisan candidates for judicial office and county executive office.

This bill seems to be a compromise between the idea of eliminating the straight-ticket device, and keeping it. Another bill, HB 1288, would simply eliminate the device. Texas elects its judges in partisan races, and although many Republicans in the legislature seem to want to keep the device, they are bothered by the fact that the device makes it difficult for Republican judges to be elected or re-elected in Dallas County, because Dallas County has become a stronghold for the Democratic Party (in November 2012, Dallas County cast 405,571 votes for President Obama and 295,813 votes for Mitt Romney).

It seems that if the bill were enacted, it might be found to violate Bush v Gore, since it would apply to some counties and not others. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.

The Washington Secretary of State, Kim Wyman, is trying to persuade the legislature to pass SB 5978. See this story. The bill moves the presidential primary from May to the second Tuesday in March. It also requires the major parties to reveal by November of the year before the election whether they will make use of their presidential primaries, or whether caucuses will choose delegates. Although the presidential primary law has been in the books for several decades, the state didn’t hold presidential primaries in 2012 because both major parties used caucuses instead.

SB 5978 also provides that voters would need to declare a party preference in order to vote in a presidential primary.

Maryland Delegate David Moon (D-Montgomery County) has introduced HB 626. It lowers the number of registered voters needed for a party to remain ballot-qualified from 1% of the state total (about 40,000 members) to exactly 10,000 members. If the bill were to pass, the Libertarian and Green Parties would probably remain on the ballot indefinitely, instead of having to re-petition every four years.

Even though the Libertarian Party got over 1% of the gubernatorial vote in November 2014, that only puts it on the ballot for 2016. Then, in 2016, if it doesn’t poll as much as 1% for president, it would go off the ballot, unless the party meets the registration test, which the bill would ease. Thanks to Brian Bittner for this news.