Global Strategy Group conducts research on public policy and is also a highly-respected polling and public relations firm. Jonathan Brown has posted this article on the company’s web page, about California’s top-two election system.
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On March 25, California held a special election for State Senate, 23rd district. The Libertarian, Jeff Hewitt, a city councilman, placed fourth in a five-person race, polling 6.5%. This is the 86th election for federal or state office in which a minor party member has run in a top-two system, and in which there were at least two major party members running. In all 86 instances, the minor party member did not place first or second. Here is a link to the election returns.
This article from Green Party Watch explains that the state chair of the Maine Green Party, Asher Platts, is fighting to appear on the Green Party’s June 2014 primary ballot, as a candidate for State Senate, 27th district. He needs 100 signatures of party members. A Democratic Party official has challenged his petition, saying he really only has 99 valid signatures. Platts believes he does have at least 100 valid signatures.
Committees in both houses of the Tennessee legislature have again postponed consideration of the ballot access bills, HB 958 and SB 1091. The bills lower the number of signatures from 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote (over 40,000 signatures) to exactly 2,500 signatures.
The Senate bill will now be heard April 2, and the House bill on April 1. They had been scheduled for March 25 hearings.
On March 20, U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley refused to enjoin a new Ohio election law that says independent candidate petitions must be completed within one year of the starting date. Duncan v Husted, southern district, 2:13cv1157. The decision says that the U.S. Supreme Court has spoken approvingly of ballot access schemes in which the petitioning period was even shorter than one year.
The only state interest the order mentions is that the state will do a better job of checking petitions if the petitioning period is limited to one year (the candidate chooses the one-year period). It says, “Defendant argues that the State has a strong interest in creating a fair and robust process for validating the signatures for every independent candiate, which can take a considerable amount of time and often results in the invalidation of many petition signatures. Thus the State alleges that the shorter, one-year time frame imposed by the amended statutes would make invalidation less likely.”