On January 19, Lord Ashcroft Polls, one of Great Britain’s leading pollsters, released a poll for the May 2015 House of Commons election. It shows 11% for the Green Party, but 9% for the Liberal Democratic Party. This outcome will aid the Green Party in its fight to be included in at least one of the national debates. See this Guardian story about the poll results.
Oklahoma State Senator Brian Crain (R-Tulsa) has introduced SB 233. It moves the presidential primary from the first Tuesday in March to the fourth Tuesday in March. For 2016, that would mean a shift from March 1 to March 22. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.
On January 19, the Virginia Senate Campaigns Subcommittee defeated SB 766 by 4-2. This is the bill that would lower the statewide non-presidential petitions from 10,000 to 5,000. The presidential petitions are currently at 5,000. All the Republicans voted “no” and all the Democrats voted “yes.” Thanks to Bill Redpath for this news.
Political scientist Eric Ostermeier, whose blog “Smart Politics” analyzes new and interesting electoral phenomena, has this analysis of the Libertarian Party showings for U.S. Senate in 2014.
On January 9, Pennsylvania State Senator Mike Folmer (R-Lebanon) was appointed Chair of the Senate State Government Committee. This is the committee that hears election law bills. Folmer has been the leading legislative champion of ballot access reform in Pennsylvania starting in 2009. He introduced ballot access improvement bills in 2009, 2011, and 2013, and intends to do so again this year.
His bill never got a committee hearing in the past, but now that he is the Chair of the Committee, that won’t be a problem. Folmer did hold informal hearings on the bill in his own district office in the past, to gain publicity for the bill, but of course a formal legislative hearing is far more useful.
Also the Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition, which has had an inactive web page for many years, is about to launch a new web page that will be current.
