On April 16, five British political party leaders debated each other. Last week seven had appeared. See this story about the April 16 debate.
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On April 16, a U.S. District Court Judge in Chicago held a status conference in Libertarian Party of Illinois v Illinois State Board of Elections. The judge said the decision will be out in two weeks. The issue is the Illinois law that says a newly-qualifying party must run a full slate of candidates. Old parties are not subject to the same requirement.
Maine State Senator Amy Volk (R-Scarborough) has introduced LD 1012, to ask voters if they wish to change the Constitution to provide for 4-year terms for State Senators, instead of 2-year terms. The bill was introduced a month ago and has not yet made any headway.
Most states already have 4-year State Senate terms. The twelve states that still have 2-year State Senate terms are Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Vermont.
In 2000, a U.S. “vote-swapping” site was set up to make it possible for voters to cast more effective votes for President. An internet site paired up voters in different states. Voters who supported Al Gore and who lived in states which were overwhelmingly Republican or Democratic sought to pair up with Nader voters who lived in swing states. The Green voter would promise to vote for Al Gore in exchange for the Democratic voter voting for Ralph Nader.
Now the same idea has surfaced in Great Britain. As in the United States, most British districts are safe for one particular party, so the system matches up voters in swing districts with voters in safe districts. This Guardian opinion piece explains, and also laments the fact that Britain doesn’t have proportional representation. Here is another article, in The Independent.
The vote-swapping web page is at voteswap.org.
The Bend Bulletin has this editorial, praising the Independent Party of Oregon for opening its primary to independent voters. Under a U.S. Supreme Court decision from 1986, Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut, any party entitled to a government-administered primary can at any time open its primary to independent voters, regardless of state law. The Independent Party has taken this step, as it gets ready for its first government primary in 2016.