Every presidential campaign, major and minor, that receives public funding from the Federal Election Commission must later undergo an audit by the FEC. Jill Stein’s campaign has this brief description of the process, which is underway now. FEC employees are apparently spending five weeks in Madison, Wisconsin, at the Stein campaign headquarters.
On April 30, the Oregon House Rules Committee introduced HB 3521, which would provide that any citizen for whom the state has data will automatically be registered. Persons put on the voting rolls would then be notified, giving the individual a chance to choose a party or independent status, and also giving the person a chance to decline to become a registered voter. Here is the text of the bill.
The automatic registration idea is used in Great Britain and other foreign countries, but as far as is known, has never been used in the United States. Thanks to Blair Bobier for the news of the bill. The bill had a hearing on May 8; see this story.
On May 7, New Paltz, Ulster County, New York, held elections for village office. The elections are partisan, but the village parties are not permitted to be the same as the state qualified parties. Two seats were up for Village Board. Only two candidates appeared on the ballot, Tom Rocco with the label Responsive Government Party, and Jonathan Cohen of the Common Sense Party. They are registered Democrats.
Two Green Party members had petitioned to be on the ballot, but their petitions were challenged, so they ran write-in campaigns. Rebecca Rotzler won as a write-in, defeating one of the ballot-listed candidates. See this story. If Rotzler had been on the ballot, her party label would have been Innovation Party. She was not permitted to be on the ballot as a Green, because the Green Party is ballot-qualified in the state. She had also been elected to the Village Board in 2003. At that time, the Green Party was not ballot-qualified, so when she won in 2003, she was listed as a Green. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for this news.
On May 8, the Minnesota House defeated HF 799 by 62-71. This is the National Popular Vote Plan bill.
On May 8, the North Carolina House Elections Committee voted to alter HB 794, the ballot access reform bill, into a study bill. The Committee then passed the bill without opposition. Assuming it is signed into law, the legislature will study ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates before February 2014. This means public hearings will be held, and the joint committee will issue a report. The second half of the current session will then use the study results to decide whether to pass the original bill.
The bill lowers the number of signatures for statewide independent candidates and newly-qualifying parties from approximately 90,000 signatures to approximately 11,000. Thanks to Jordon Greene for this information.
