On February 17, the New Hampshire House Election Law Committee defeated HB 665, which would have lowered the number of signatures for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. Thanks to Darryl Perry for this news.
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Here are the results of a British poll, released on February 16, showing that the the combined support for the Conservative and Labour Parties is only 68%. Other parties have the remaining 32%.
Martin Wisckol, politics reporter for the Orange County (California) Register, has this column about recent political science research on California’s top-two system. Unfortunately, Wisckol, like so many other otherwise well-informed people, says that before the top-two system was implemented in California, independent voters were not able to vote in major party primaries for Congress and partisan state office. I have sent him an e-mail about that.
Late last year, Congress increased the contribution limits for individuals who give to political parties. The higher limits only include contributions for one of three purposes: (1) Political party legal expenses; (2) expenses of putting on a national convention; (3) expenses in buying, building, or maintaining national party headquarters. On February 13, the Federal Election Commission put out these rules for how political parties are to handle and report such contributions. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
The Texas Tribune, a well-read on-line Texas news source, has this opinion piece by Representative Rob Simmons. It urges that Texas voters contact their state legislators and ask them to support his HB 1288. The bill would eliminate the straight-ticket device.