On March 3, seventeen Alabama representatives, all Republicans, introduced HB 541. It mandates closed primaries, and does not give a party the option to let independents vote in its primary. It also sets very restrictive for voters to enroll in parties. They could register into a party that is entitled to its own primary. Thus, even if a new party got on the ballot, no one could register into it until after it had polled 20% of the vote for a statewide office. See page six of the bill.

The House Committee on Ethics and Campaign Finance heard the bill on March 11. See this story.

Courts in Colorado, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, and Oklahoma have ruled that it violates the First Amendment to forbid a voter from registering into an unqualified party.

On February 27, Bo Gritz died at the age of 87. He was the Populist Party’s presidential nominee in 1992. For someone who was not famous, he polled a surprisingly large share of the vote in certain places in Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Louisiana. He received 11.8% in Duchesne County, Htah, and 12.40% in Franklin County, Idaho. Nationwide he polled 107,014, the highest presidential vote the Populist Party ever polled. The New York Times carried an obituary for him on March 10.

He tried to get the American Independent Party nomination in California, but the AIP nominated Howard Phillips instead. Gritz mischeviously met with Phillips and AIP leaders and tried to get them to agree to settle the nomination with a coin toss. But that idea was rejected. Here is an obituary from a Nevada news source.

Greg Ballard, who had previously announced his independent candidacy for Indiana Secretary of State, will use the partisan label “Lincoln Party”. That way, assuming he gets on the ballot and polls at least 2%, a party with that name will automatically become ballot-qualified. See this story.

Ballard is a former Mayor of Indianapolis. When he was Mayor, he was elected as a Republican.