Politico has this article by Paul Blumenthal, showing how the U.S. Supreme Court opinion striking down the Defense of Marriage Act will alter some campaign finance laws.
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On June 26, the Virginia State Board of Elections determined that Rob Sarvis, the Libertarian nominee for Governor, has enough valid signatures on his petition and will be on the ballot. UPDATE: The announcement resulted in publicity; see this story.
On June 21, Rosanne Koss, a Southfield Township Trustee, announced that she had changed her party affiliation from Republican to Libertarian. See this story. Southfield Township Trustee elections are partisan. The population of Southfield Township is 14,547. It is in Oakland County.
Michigan doesn’t have registration by party, so the only objective means for an individual to declare party membership (during a non-election period) is simply by public declaration.
According to this story, the New York legislature may re-convene as early as July. That would provide a new opportunity for the legislature to pass some important election law bills, including the Governor’s proposal to lower the number of signatures for statewide candidates (in both primaries and the general election) from 15,000 to 10,000 signatures. Also it would possibly enable the National Popular Vote Plan bill to pass. It passed the Assembly this year but not the State Senate. Last year it passed the State Senate but not the Assembly.
The California Independent Voters Project has begun the steps to qualify a statewide initiative that would end public elections for political party office. The initiative would amend the California Constitution to abolish public elections for county central committee.
About half the states now have public elections for party office, and half don’t. In the states without elections, party meetings choose party officers. In California, under current law, each party is free to decide whether to use public elections for party office. The only ballot-qualified parties in California that don’t use public elections to choose party officers are the Libertarian and Americans Elect Parties. UPDATE: here is a copy of the proposed initiative. It also attempts to restore the blanket presidential primary used in California in 2000, in which all presidential candidates appear on a single ballot.