New Hampshire election law says anyone can be on a presidential primary ballot who pays a fee of $1,000 and fills out a Declaration of Candidacy. However, the Declaration of Candidacy since 1983 has said, “I am a registered member of the (fill in the blank) party.”

The literal language of the New Hampshire requirement that the candidate be a registered member of the party has never been applied, because 20 states don’t have registration by party. Walter Mondale, the Democratic nominee in 1984, was not a registered Democrat because Minnesota has never had registration by party (and, if it did, Mondale would have been a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party). Bill Clinton was not a registered Democrat for the same reasons; neither was Al Gore. Among Republicans, neither George H. W. Bush nor George W. Bush was a registered Republican because Texas doesn’t have registration by party.

So, in practice, the affidavit doesn’t mean what it says; what it does mean is that the candidate must hold himself out as a member of the party. See this story. It will be interesting to see how Senator Bernie Sanders handles this situation. Even though he has announced that he intends to run in Democratic presidential primaries, he has not said that he a Democrat, and he lists himself in the Congressional Directory as an independent. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

On April 29, the Florida legislature passed SB 228 Committee Substitute, which lets individuals register to vote on-line. Here is the text of the bill. The process is entirely electronic for applicants who already have a Florida drivers license or state I.D. card. If the individual does not, then the system prompts the applicant to print out a form, sign it, and mail it in.

The Secretary of State, Ken Detzler, is opposed to the bill. Detzler is appointed by the Governor, Rick Scott. It is not known if the Governor will sign the bill. The bill passed overwhelmingly in both houses of the legislature.

On April 29, the California Supreme Court refused to hear Rubin v Padilla, the case filed by three of California’s minor parties that charges the top-two system injures voting rights in the general election. It is conceivable that the case will now be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.