North Carolina Representatives Marvin Lucas (D-Spring Lake) and Elmer Floyd (D-Fayetteville) have introduced HB 38, which would abolish run-off partisan primaries. Thanks to Kevin Hayes for this news.
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On February 1, U.S. District Court Judge John J. Thorp ordered that minor party candidates for U.S. House, 2nd district, should not be required to obtain more than 3,444 valid signatures to be included in the April 2013 special election. The deadline is Monday, February 4, so there is a possibility that either the Green Party nominee, LeAlan Jones, or the independent candidate, Marcus Lewis, or anyone else, might succeed in surmounting this requirement by the deadline. The case is Jones v McGuffage, 12C-9997, northern district.
Without the court order, the requirement would have been 15,682. The basis for the 3,444 figure is that Illinois only requires 5,000 signatures for U.S. House independents and unqualified parties in years after redistricting, and the judge said a special election is such an unplanned event, a special election is analogous to an election held the year after redistricting. And because normally 90 days are permitted for petitioning in Illinois, and in this special election only 62 days are allowed, 62/90ths times 5,000 equals 3,444.
It is possible that an order will be released on February 1 in Jones v McGuffage, 12-cv-9997, the Green Party’s ballot access case pending in Chicago. The Green Party is hoping for relief from the law that requires over 15,000 valid signatures by February 4 if the party’s nominee for U.S. House in the special April 2013 election, 2nd district, has a chance to appear on the ballot. Independent candidate Marcus Lewis is also hoping for some relief. Here is the closing brief of the Green Party. Here is the state’s closing brief.
A ballot access improvement bill will be introduced in Alabama on February 5. In the Senate it will be introduced by Senator Cam Ward (R-Alabaster); in the House by Representative Patricia Todd (D-Birmingham). This is the first time such a bill has had sponsors in both houses. In the past, ballot access reform bills have passed in the Senate, but not the House. Thanks to Joshua Cassidy for this news.
See this story about Iran’s new election law. The law transfers authority for overseeing vote counting to a Central Executive Election Board composed of eleven members. The intent is to make it more likely that the vote count will be accurate and honest.