California Releases New Voter Registration Data

Posted on by February 22, 2016
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On February 22, the California Secretary of State published voter registration data as of January 5, 2016. See the Report of Registration here. The last tally had been as of February 10, 2015. The number of registered voters declined over the past year. The February 2015 total was 17,717,936; the new total is 17,259,413.

No new parties qualified as a result of the new tally. If any previously unqualified party had as many as 56,957 registrants in this tally, it would be qualified for both 2016 and 2018. But no such party qualified. The Reform Party has asked to be a political body, and to have a tally, but it did not make the request in time for this tally. It probably has about 15,000 registrants. The largest political body in the January 4, 2016 tally is the Constitution Party, which has 338 registrants. In February 2015 it had had 325. Unqualified parties can still participate in the November 2016 presidential election if they obtain enough registrations by July 11, 2016.

Parties that declined, as a share of the registration, between February 2015 and January 2016, are: Democratic, from 43.15% to 43.10%; Republican, from 27.98% to 27.62%; Green, from .62% to .59%; and Peace & Freedom, from .442% to .438%.

Parties that increased their share between February 2015 and January 2016 are: American Independent, from 2.71% to 2.73%; and Libertarian, from .69% to .70%. Independents plus unqualified parties grew from 24.41% to 24.81%.

The March 1, 2016 printed BAN will have a chart showing the number of registered voters in each party, in each state.

Democratic and Libertarian Parties of Nebraska Will Let Independents Vote in their 2016 Primaries

Posted on by February 22, 2016
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Both the Democratic Party of Nebraska and the Libertarian Party of Nebraska have told the Secretary of State that independent voters should be allowed to vote in their primaries for all partisan office. See this story. The law in Nebraska already requires that all parties let independents vote in their congressional primaries, but the parties need not permit independents to vote in their presidential primary or their primary for state and local partisan office.

The Libertarian Party has a contested primary this year for U.S. House, 2nd district. The list of presidential primary candidates in all three Nebraska primaries has not yet been set, but should be by February 26.

North Carolina Gerrymandering Plaintiffs Say New U.S. House Districts Are No Better than Old Ones

Posted on by February 22, 2016
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On February 22, the voters who brought the North Carolina racial gerrymandering lawsuit against the state’s original U.S. House district boundaries filed a motion with the 3-judge U.S. District Court. It says, “The map adopted by the General Assembly (last week) has been subject to considerable criticism, and Plaintiffs share those deep concerns. Their preliminary analysis of the new plan suggests that it is no more appropriate than the version struck down by the Court.”

The voters want briefs over the constitutionality and legality of the new plan to be completed quickly, and they want a court hearing on March 11.