On February 18, a subcommittee of the New Hampshire House Election Law Committee held a work session on two bills that ease the definition of “political party”. The subcommitee recommended passage of HB 1322, which lowers the vote test from 4% to 3%. As the subcommittee members noted, the vote test was 3% in New Hampshire from 1891 until 1997, when it was raised to 4%. The vote test applies to gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidates. New Hampshire doesn’t elect any other statewide offices except for President.

The full Election Law Committee will consider the bill on February 20.

The subcommittee did not approve HB 1497, which lowers the vote test to 1% and also lowers the number of signatures for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. Thanks to Darryl Perry for this news.

Marianne Williamson, the independent candidate in California’s 33rd U.S. House district this year, and a well-known author, has hired John Shallman and Joe Trippi to work on her campaign. See this story. Shallman and Trippi normally work for Democrats. Williamson is actively trying to raise $1,500,000 for her campaign.

On February 14, Maryland State Senator William C. Ferguson (D-Baltimore) introduced SB 1032, which changes the number of registered members for a party to remain ballot-qualified from 1% of the state total, to exactly 10,000 members. If the bill were enacted, the state’s two ballot-qualified minor parties, the Libertarian and Green Parties, would no longer face removal every four years. Parties need 10,000 signatures to get on the ballot, so logically it is difficult to understand why they should need more than 10,000 members to remain on. Thanks to Brian Bittner for this news.