New York Times Editorial, “The Worst Voter Turnout in 72 Years”

Posted on by November 12, 2014
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The New York Times’ lead editorial in the November 12 paper edition is “The Worst Voter Turnout in 72 Years”. Here is a link to the editorial. The editorial contains a graph, showing turnout back to 1900. The figures are from Professor Michael McDonald, who calculates the number of voters, as a percentage of the number of persons who were eligible to register and vote. In other words, the percentages do not relate to how many registered voters there are, just the potential electorate if everyone did register.

Turnout was low in the 1920’s because women had won the right to register to vote, but many women, initially, did not feel comfortable registering or voting. Turnout was low in 1942 because back then, no one could register into a state without having lived in that state for a year, and a large proportion of the population moved during 1942, into states with factories that started producing armaments, or went overseas because of service in the armed forces.

Massachusetts United Independent Party Launches Voter Registration Drive

Posted on by November 12, 2014
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The United Independent Party of Massachusetts became ballot-qualified on November 4, when it polled over 3% for a statewide office (for Governor, for Evan Falchuk). However, it will go off the ballot in November 2016 unless it polls 3% in that election as well, and the only statewide offices up in 2016 in Massachusetts is President.

However, the party can also remain ballot-qualified if its statewide registration rises to 1% of the state total. According to this news story, the party is already starting to work on its registration drive. The 1% registration alternative to obtaining or retaining party status has only existed since 1991, and it has never been used.

The story says that the current voter registration form on the Massachusetts state government web page is so obsolete, it still shows the name of another minor party (which the story doesn’t name, but which probably refers to the Green-Rainbow Party) which lost its status two years ago. This part of the story seems not to be correct. Here is a link to the Massachusetts registration form, showing only the Democratic and Republican Parties. New forms, when they are produced, will list four parties, including the Green-Rainbow Party, which regained its party status by polling over 3% last year for some of the less important statewide offices.

At the October 2014 tally, the United Independent Party only had 83 registered voters. It will need approximately 45,000.

U.S. District Court Strikes Down Nebraska’s County Distribution Requirement for Statewide Initiatives

Posted on by November 11, 2014
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On November 10, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Bataillon struck down Nebraska’s requirement that statewide initiatives need the signatures of 5% of the registered voters in each of 38 counties. The decision has no effect on the number of signatures needed statewide, but as a result of the decision, it will be easier to place initiatives on the ballot. Bernbeck v Gale, 8:13cv-228. The state has not yet decided whether to appeal.

The basis for the decision is the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The flaw in the existing law is that it gives more power to small-population counties than to large counties. The decision notes that just five contiguous counties in the east contain 42% of Nebraska’s population. If an initiative had unanimous support in those counties, but no support whatsoever in other counties, it could not get on the ballot. On the other hand, if an initiative had unanimous support in the rural counties, but no support in the more populous counties, it could get on the ballot.

The decision notes that 66 of Nebraska’s 93 counties have a population under 10,000. Thanks to Kent Bernbeck for this news.