Some Norwegian voters in 2011 and 2013 were permitted to vote using the internet. However, Norway has decided to end the experiment, for the reasons explained in this BBC article. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
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No statewide initiative has qualified in Nebraska since 2008, but it is likely that the 2014 ballot will have an initiative to raise the minimum wage. See this story, which says that proponents submitted 135,000 signatures. They needed 81,000. There is also a county distribution requirement, which is under attack in a federal lawsuit now pending, Bernbeck v Gale, 8:13cv-228. Thanks to Doug McNeil for the link.
Mike Myers is this year’s only independent candidate for Governor of South Dakota. According to this story, his Lieutenant Governor running mate must drop out of the race for health reasons, and the Secretary of State says Myers can’t replace him.
However, federal courts in Virginia and Florida have ruled that if states permit qualified parties to substitute, they must let unqualified parties or independent candidates enjoy the same substitution ability. The Florida case is Anderson v Firestone, 499 F Supp 1027 (n.d. Fla 1980); the Virginia case is El-Amin v State Board of Elections, 721 F Supp 770 (e.d. Va. 1989).
On July 3, James T. Parker, an independent incumbent on the New Mexico Public Education Commission, filed a federal lawsuit against the state law that requires him to submit the signatures of 3% of the last gubernatorial vote (within the district in which he is running), whereas minor party nominees need a petition of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote. Parker v Duran, 1:14cv-617.
Parker is an incumbent because he was appointed by the Governor. The Public Education Commission is elected on a partisan basis. No independent candidate has ever appeared on the ballot for that office. The number of candidates for this office is so low, there has never been a general election for that office with more than two candidates on the ballot.
New Mexico law has always been hostile to independent candidates. The state did not have procedures for independent candidates until 1977. The state’s first law for independent candidates required the signatures of 5% of the last vote cast, due in March, and the petition could not start to circulate until January. The petition deadline was declared unconstitutional in 1980. The 5% was lowered to 3% in 1991, but New Mexico still has one of the most onerous petition burdens in the nation.
Parker needed 2,196 valid signatures. He submitted 1,379. If he had been the nominee of a minor party, he would have needed 732 valid signatures.
July 3 is the deadline for statewide initiatives to submit petitions in Oregon this year. Although two different initiatives had been circulating for a top-two election system, only one of them appears to have qualified. The one that almost certainly qualified submitted over 140,000 signatures last week, and provides for a standard top-two system, similar to the ones used in California and Washington.
The one that failed to obtain enough signatures would have used approval voting in the May primary.
The measure that qualified had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from a handful of wealthy contributors, and used paid circulators. The version that failed was mostly dependent on volunteers.