New Hampshire Bill Signed to Require Rotation of Presidential Primary Names on Ballot

Posted on by June 12, 2015
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On June 5, New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan signed HB 503. It changes the order of candidate names on presidential primary ballots. The old law listed them in alphabetical order. The new law rotates the names, so that each candidate has an equal chance to appear on the top line. Rotation had already been used for candidates for all other office.

New Hampshire generally has the most candidates on presidential primary ballots of any state. In 2012 there were 30 names on the Republican ballot and 14 on the Democratic ballot. Thanks to Darryl Perry for the news about HB 503.

North Carolina Governor Signs Bill for Judicial Retention Elections for State Supreme Court

Posted on by June 12, 2015
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On June 11, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed HB 222. It generally lets members of the State Supreme Court retain their seats without having to face opponents. Instead they appear on the ballot and a voter votes on whether or not to retain that Justice. The new procedure does not apply to candidates who were recently appointed and never ran in any type of election; they are still subject to having an opponent and having to run against that opponent in non-partisan elections.

Utah Republican Party May Still Try to Prevent Primary Candidates who Don’t Have Substantial Support at Party Caucuses

Posted on by June 12, 2015
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According to this story, some leaders of the Utah Republican Party still don’t accept the 2014 law that lets people run in Republican primaries (if they submit a petition), even though they didn’t show substantial support at a party meeting. The party will decide in August on whether to change the bylaws to say that someone who tries to run in a Republican primary without having shown support at a party meeting is, by definition, not a member of the party.

Pennsylvania Does Not Appeal the Ballot Access Wins in U.S. District Court from the March 2, 2015 Decision

Posted on by June 12, 2015
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Pennsylvania state government attorneys did not appeal any of the three points won on March 2, 2015, by the Libertarian and Green Parties in Green Party of Pennsylvania v Aichele. The government deadline to appeal was June 11, but no government appeal was lodged.

The three points that had been won on March 2, 2015, were: (1) the ban on out-of-state circulators is unconstitutional; (2) the requirement that each petition sheet be notarized is unconstitutional; (3) the ban on a voter signing the petitions of different petitioning parties, even if they are running for the same office, is unconstitutional.

The two parties are appealing the points they lost: (1) whether voters from different counties can sign the same petition sheet; (2) whether persons who are not registered to vote but who are eligible to register to vote can sign petitions.