On March 19, the Kansas Senate unanimously passed HB 2130, which repeals all Kansas laws that bar out-of-state circulators. The new law requires circulators to be at least age 18, a citizen of the U.S., and to not be an ex-felon. The House had passed this bill in 2013. The bill now goes to the Governor.
on March 19, U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Watson ruled that the Ohio law requiring paid circulators to identify their employer on each petition sheet is probably constitutional. Therefore there is no basis to restore the statewide Libertarian candidates to the Libertarian Party primary ballot. The party and its statewide candidates have filed a notice of appeal.
The decision does say, “Evidence in the record supports an inference that operatives or supporters of the Ohio Republican Party orchestrated the protest”, but the decision also says that is not relevant to the constitutionality of the disclosure law. The opinion says that the disclosure requirement is necessary to help prevent petitioning fraud, although the opinion also says there is no reason to think any of the petitions in this matter are fraudulent.
On March 19, New Jersey election officials agreed that they will grant voter registration rights to the Socialist Party. This means that when anyone fills in the “political party” blank on voter registration forms, the state will keep a tally of these voters, and then party officers will be able to learn of the existence of such voters.
Other unqualified parties that are treated this way are the Conservative, Constitution, Green, Libertarian, Natural Law, and Reform Parties. Each of these parties obtained that status by suing the state, just as the Socialist Party did last year. It is hoped that New Jersey officials will promulgate regulations that explain which groups have voter registration rights. Some of the parties that have such rights no longer exist, but without regulations on how groups obtain and keep such rights, there is no way to delete groups from the list. Alternatively, it is possible the legislature will address this matter.
Reason Magazine has this article, describing some of the events in the pending federal lawsuit on whether Libertarian Party statewide candidates should be on the May Libertarian primary ballot. The most interesting part of the story describes the individual who challenged the petitions. According to the story, he appears not to understand his role. He did not seek out any attorneys and it seems he did not even realize that when he signed the challenge form, that he was initiating the challenge process. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for the link.
On March 19, the Louisiana House & Government Affairs Committee passed HB 193. It lets independent candidates use the ballot label “independent” instead of “no party.” Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.
A somewhat similar bill that failed in a Senate Committee a few days ago also included a provision, permitting the creation of a party named the “Independent Party.” That latter part of the bill is probably what caused it to fail. HB 193 retains the ban on any party being called “Independent Party”, so it seems somewhat likely that HB 193 will pass the Senate Committee, if it passes the House.
