The News and Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina, has this op-ed, criticizing the North Carolina legislature for refusing to address ballot access. Even though the House passed a bill last year to study ballot access, the Senate has not advanced the bill. The op-ed is by Wayne Turner, of the North Carolina Green Party.
On June 12, a University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll was released for the Texas gubernatorial race. The results: Republican Greg Abbott 44%; Democrat Wendy Davis 32%; Libertarian Kathie Glass 3%; Green Party nominee Brandon Parmer 1%; “someone else” 3%; undecided 17%. Those four candidates will be the only ones on the ballot.
The state chair of the Alabama Republican Party, Bill Armistead, says he will work to enable the Republican Party to close its primary to non-members. The Times Daily of Florence has this short editorial, opposing the idea. The Decatur Daily has this short editorial in support of the idea.
The Times Daily is in error to say there are only eleven states with open primaries. There are nineteen such states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Of those, Illinois and Ohio are borderline; those states do not ask voters to choose a party on voter registration forms, but they try to keep a record of which party’s primary is chosen. An “open primary” in one in which, on primary day, any voter is free to choose any party’s primary ballot, but parties do have primary ballots and party nominees.
On June 9, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen J. Murphy ordered that the Michigan Secretary of State is permitted to respond to the request for reconsideration in Erard v Michigan Secretary of State, eastern district, 12-cv-13627. Most of the time, when plaintiffs lose and then ask for reconsideration, the court denies reconsideration without even asking the other side to respond. But in this case, the request for reconsideration is weighty enough that the Judge wants to hear from the Secretary of State.
The main issue in this case is whether Michigan is violating Equal Protection by requiring approximately twice as many signatures to get a newly-qualifying party on the ballot, as it requires votes for an old party to remain on the ballot.
Fairvote has this thoughtful analysis of California’s top-two system, published on June 11. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
