On June 2, the California Assembly passed AB 1461 by a vote of 45-25. It provides that adult citizens who have a state ID card or a drivers license will be automatically registered to vote. They will be notified that they have been registered, and they will be given a form to return that lets them opt out if they wish, and also lets them choose a political party. If the individual does not respond in three weeks the registration goes into effect. Now the bill goes to the Senate.
The Federal Election Commission has published “Combined Federal/State Disclosure and Election Directory 2015.” This is a free book, with 144 pages, that lists the leading state election officials of each state, along with contact information. Anyone may receive a copy from the FEC. The toll-free phone is 800-424-9530. Choose option (2) in the voice mail.
The FEC publishes this book every year. Obviously, it becomes out-of-date over time, as personnel changes in the states are made.
On June 1, the Ninth Circuit asked attorneys for the Arizona Secretary of State to respond to the request for rehearing that the Libertarian and Green Parties had filed on May 8. This is a sign that the Ninth Circuit is looking seriously at whether to rehear the case. The issue is the state registration form that gives a checkbox to the two largest parties, to make it easy for applicants to register into the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. If a voter wishes to register into any other qualified party, he or she must know about the existence of the other party and write-in the name of that party on the blank line labeled “other.” The original Ninth Circuit decision had said this is just a “slight” burden on the Libertarian Party and the Green Party, even though the law lets them remain ballot-qualified if they get their registration above two-thirds of 1%. The Green Party has never met this registration test, and is thus forced to do a difficult petition every four years.
The May 29 Washington Post has this op-ed, advocating public financing of campaigns for Congress and other office. The author is Phil Andrews, who is a former member of the Montgomery County, Maryland County Council. Last year the county instituted its own public funding system for elections to county office. Montgomery County adjoins Washington, D.C., and happens to be the residence of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
A new web page, presidentialdebatenews.com, has come into existence. It is sponsored by Level the Playing Field, and exists to post news about efforts to persuade the Commission on Presidential Debates to expand entry into the general election debates. Thanks to Independent Voters Network for this news. Here is a link to the web page that shows each of the last six entries. The first entry was on May 20.
