West Virginia Supreme Court Rules that Republican Party, not Democratic Party, Can Name Replacement State Senator

Posted on by January 22, 2016
5

In West Virginia, when a state legislator resigns, that legislator’s party may choose three possible replacements, and the Governor then chooses one of those three names. On January 22, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled 3-1 that the Republican Party, not the Democratic Party, may submit three names to the Governor. State ex rel Biafore v Tomblin, 16-0013. This link goes to the court’s web page. There are separate links to the opinion of the court, and two concurring opinions. The dissenting justice hasn’t written a dissent yet.

The Senate vacancy was created on December 29, 2015, when State Senator Daniel Jackson Hall resigned. Hall was elected as a Democrat in November 2012 to a four-year term. In November 2015 he switched parties, from Democratic to Republican. Then he resigned. Democrats filed the lawsuit, arguing that they should be the party that gets to submit three replacement possibilities, but the Court ruled in favor of the Republicans. The law says the party that gets to choose is “the party with which the person holding the office immediately preceding the vacancy was affiliated.”

Tennessee Bills to Require Secretary of State to Determine Who is a Natural-Born Citizen

Posted on by January 22, 2016
7

Two Tennessee legislators have introduced bills that amend the election code. The bills prohibit the Secretary of State from placing any presidential candidate on the general election ballot if the candidate is not a natural-born citizen. Here is the text of SB 2625. The other bill, HB 2595, is identical. The sponsors are two Democrats from Nashville, Senator Jeff Yarbro and Representative Jason Powell.

Arizona Secretary of State Wants to Stop Taxpayer Funding of Presidential Primaries

Posted on by January 21, 2016
12

Arizona Secretary of State Michelle Reagan, a Republican, says she wants the legislature to pass a bill ending taxpayer support for administering presidential primaries. Legislative leaders say they agree with her, and will soon introduce such a bill. Inevitably, this would mean there would be caucuses instead of presidential primaries in Arizona, because the parties could not afford to administer presidential primaries on their own.

Arizona Top-Two Proponents File Text of Proposed Initiative

Posted on by January 21, 2016
4

On January 21, proponents of a top-two system for Arizona filed the text of their initiative. It is almost identical to the proposal submitted by the same people in 2012, which was defeated 662,366 to 1,340,286. However, it does say that if only one or two candidates file for the August primary (for an office that elects one person), the August primary will omit that office from the ballot, and the first vote for that office will be in November. It allows write-in votes in both August and November.

Earlier press reports had said the proponents would delete party labels from the primary and general election ballots, but the text does not eliminate party labels. The text says that the party label printed on the ballots must match the partisan registration of the candidate. The text does not make it clear whether that includes labels which are not the names of qualified parties. Anyone is free to register into any group on Arizona voter registration forms, on the blank line for “party.” If the proponents wished to allow any partisan label without restriction, it seems they would have set a limit on how long that label can be, as Washington state does.

The proposal makes no changes to the presidential primary or the presidential general election. The summary of the initiative implies that under current law, some voters are not able to vote in some primaries. Actually, existing law already guarantees that independents can vote in any partisan primary other than the presidential primary. Anyone who reads the summary would probably be led to believe that if the initiative passed, independents could vote in Arizona presidential primaries, but that would not be true.