On March 24, New York Assemblymember Fred W. Thiele (I-Sag Harbor) introduced AB 9661, to let independent voters vote in any party’s presidential primary. Thiele has been a registered member of the Independence Party since 2010, but in all the years he has been a member of the Independence Party, he also obtains the Democratic Party nomination when he runs for re-election.
On April 7, Pat Buchanan appeared on the Hannity Show and advised the Republican Party to nominate Donald Trump for President and Ted Cruz for Vice-President. Scroll down to about one-third of the way. Buchanan said, “Let me suggest something, Sean. Go with Trump and Cruz as a ticket.” Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
The New York State Board of Elections has released a tally of the number of registered voters in each party, as of April 1, 2016. This is the first new tally in New York since the November 1, 2015 tally.
The percentage of voters in each qualified party increased between November 2015 and April 2016, except that the Republican and Conservative shares declined. The number of independent voters also increased.
Democratic: from 49.19% to 49.40%
Republican: from 23.67% to 23.29%
Independence Party: from 4.02% to 4.06%
Conservative: 1.38% to 1.36%
Working Families: .405% to .412%
Green: .220% to .224%
Women’s Equality: only one-hundredth of 1% in both tallies, but raw numbers went from 602 to 1,283
Reform: raw numbers went from 78 to 377.
independents: 21.06% to 21.19%
The Libertarian Party is not ballot-qualified, but the state tracks its registrations. Libertarians had 5,856 registrants in early February and now have 6,017 registrants.
This East Oregonian story says a substantial number of Oregon voters are changing their registration from independent status, and from minor parties, and joining the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. This is because the primaries of those two parties are closed, and only members may vote in them. The Oregon primary, including a presidential primary, is May 17.
On April 5, the Washington, D.C. city council passed B21-0675, which has the effect of putting Bernie Sanders on the presidential primary ballot. The primary is June 14, and is the latest presidential primary in the nation. The “Primary Election Filing Requirement Emergency Act of 2016” changes the deadline for parties to certify candidates for the ballot. Sanders had paid his filing fee of $2,500 by the deadline, March 16. But the fee was paid to the Democratic Party of D.C., which did not then certify Sanders’ name until the next day, which was past the deadline.
The bill gives parties one more day to certify the names of candidates. The bill had been introduced on April 4 and passed the next day. The text still isn’t on the City Council’s web page.
