The Bangor Daily News has this op-ed by former State Senator Dick Woodbury, advocating support for the initiative for ranked-choice voting that will be on the ballot in November 2016. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
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Montana Representative Geraldine Custer has withdrawn HB 70, her bill to establish all postal voting for Montana. The bill had the support of Secretary of State Linda McCulloch, but Representative Custer and Secretary of State McCulloch determined that the bill would not pass, so it was withdrawn. Thanks to Mike Fellows for this news. The states that send a ballot in the postal mail to all voters are Oregon, Washington, and Colorado.
Michigan Senator Marty Knollenberg (R-Troy) has introduced SB 13, which abolishes the straight-ticket device. Republicans have a majority in both houses of the legislature, and Michigan has a Republican governor. The Michigan Republican Party has long been opposed to the straight-ticket device, so this bill has a good chance of passing. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
George F. Will has this column about U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, and the possibility that he will run for president outside the two major parties. Will says Sanders has said he might have trouble getting on ballots, and then chides Sanders, saying George Wallace got on in 1968 in all states even though Wallace had a “miniscule” budget. Will also says ballot access in 1968 for Wallace was more difficult than it is today.
Wills’ blanket statement that ballot access for a presidential candidate running outside the major parties was more difficult in 1968 than today is misleading. During the period 1969-1971, more hostile changes were made to the ballot access laws than at any other time in U.S. history, so it is certainly true that ballot access in 2015 is easier than it was in 1972. But there is a big difference between 1968 and 1972. Ballot access for president was easier in 1968 than it is today in these 19 states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. Wallace only needed 52,051 valid signatures from those 19 states, whereas in 2016 someone running outside the major parties, and using the easier method, would need 272,958 valid signatures in those 19 states (Pennsylvania’s 2016 petition requirement can’t be known now, but this calculation estimates 25,000).
Wallace didn’t need any signatures at all in Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Montana, or New Mexico, because in 1968 those states let any party on the ballot with no petition; it just had to request a place on the ballot.
Will could have said that Sanders is free to seek the Green Party nomination. The Green Party is on the ballot for president in 2016 in states containing 55.4% of the total popular 2012 vote, and that percentage will rise as the Green Party completes more petitions during 2015 and 2016.
Eight Republican New Hampshire legislators have introduced HB 185, to restore the straight-ticket device. New Hampshire eliminated it in 2007, after Democrats won control of the legislature in 2006.
The general argument in favor of straight-ticket devices is that many voters are too uninterested to finish filling out their ballot, so they leave the offices toward the bottom of the ballot blank. But this argument makes little sense in New Hampshire, where the voters have fewer partisan offices on the ballot than in most states. New Hampshire voters do not elect judges, and they do not elect any statewide executive positions except Governor.
Only eleven states still have a straight-ticket device, and in two of them (Iowa and West Virginia) there are bills pending to abolish it. Thanks to Darryl Perry for the news about the New Hampshire bill. The eight sponsors of the New Hampshire bill are Senator Gary Daniels, and Representatives Dick Marston, James Spillane, Joseph Lachance, John Mullen, Joseph Hagan, Don LeBrun, and Kathleen Souza.