On January 29, the Mississippi House Apportionment & Elections Committee passed HB 933. It moves the primary for president and all other office, in presidential years, from the second Tuesday in March, to the first Tuesday in March. For 2016, that would mean a primary date of March 1, the earliest date that any state is permitted to hold a presidential primary (except for New Hampshire and South Carolina). Thanks to Josh Putnam for this news.
The Tennessee Republican State Executive Committee will meet on February 7 to vote on whether the party should work for a closed primary for itself. See this story. Tennessee has always had open primaries and has never had voter registration forms that asked applicants to choose a party affiliation or to choose independent status. The Tennessee legislature has a Republican majority in both houses, and the Governor is a Republican, so if the party decides in favor of closed primaries, it would probably work with the legislature, rather than going to court.
Ballot Access News
January 1, 2015 – Volume 30, Number 8
| This issue was printed on blue paper. |
Table of Contents
Iowa Representative Bruce Hunter (D-Des Moines) has introduced HF 27, to provide for public funding of campaigns for state office. It would also provide for a voters pamphlet to be sent to all voters, with candidate statements. See this story, which describes the bill. The story also mentions the other election law bills introduced in Iowa so far. Thanks to Nathan Hetzel for the link.
Courthouse News Service has this article about the January 29 decision of the California Court of Appeals, upholding the top-two system. The case is Rubin v Padilla.
