On April 24, the Maine Joint Veterans & Legal Affairs Committee took testimony on LD 1290. That bill would ask the voters in November 2016 if they wish to repeal public funding for campaigns for state office. The bill faced a torrent of criticism from committee members. See this story.
Both bills to repeal the Indiana straight-ticket device failed to make enough headway by certain legislative deadlines, so the bills won’t pass. They were SB 201 and HB 1008. The latter bill had passed the House but did not progress through the State Senate.
Two Vermont Representatives, Chris Pearson (Progressive-Burlington) and Jean O’Sullivan (Democrat-Burlington) have introduced a bill to ban beverage alcohol in Vermont, which would remain in effect unless or until marijuana is legalized. Under the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, states are permitted to ban beverage alcohol. Kansas banned beverage alcohol until 1948, and Mississippi until 1959. See this story.
On April 24, the Ninth Circuit upheld Arizona’s voter registration forms, which give a checkbox to the two largest parties and does not mention the other qualified parties. People who want to register into any other qualified party must write them in on a line that is less than an inch long. Arizona Libertarian Party v Bennett, 13-16254.
The opinion is by Judge A. Wallace Tashima and co-signed by Judges M. Margaret McKeown and Marsha S. Berzon. The 19-page opinion says that the Libertarian and Green Parties are not really harmed by not being listed on the forms, and that the existing form serves the government interest in not having to re-print the form every time a small party loses or gains qualification. UPDATE: here is a newspaper story about the decision. And here is another.
The United Independent Party is ballot-qualified in Massachusetts. However, since it doesn’t expect to run a presidential candidate in 2016, and because President is the only statewide office on the ballot in 2016 in Massachusetts, the party will lose its qualified status in November 2016 unless it has registration membership of 1% of the number of registered voters.
According to this story, the party has 2,300 registered members, and needs about 43,000 by November 2016. The party’s registration drive began in December 2014.
