The May 27 San Francisco Chronicle will have this story about AB 2351, the bill to ease the definition of “political party” in California. Near the end of the story, the article says if the bill passes, a party will need 5,900 registered members. That is an error; it should say 59,000.
According to this article, Karl Tatgenhorst, the Libertarian Party nominee for Secretary of State of Indiana, will campaign partly on a platform of easing Indiana ballot access laws.
Indiana has the nation’s most severe law in the nation for candidates who want to get on a presidential primary ballot. Years after the 2008 Indiana presidential primary was over, Democratic Party officials in Indiana were convicted of forging names on the petitions of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but their motivation was that without the forgery, the petitions for each of them would have failed.
Worse yet are the Indiana laws for minor party and independent candidates. Indiana is one of only two states in which no petition to get a presidential candidate on the November ballot has succeeded in any of the last three presidential elections; the other such state is Georgia. While there is considerable agitation to improve the Georgia ballot access laws, there has been little commentary or activism about this problem in Indiana in the recent past.
The Libertarian Party has safely been on the ballot in Indiana starting in 1994, because it always meets the vote test to stay on, polling 2% for Secretary of State every four years. But the Constitution Party, the Green Party, the Natural Law, and Ralph Nader, never appeared on any Indiana statewide ballot. Indiana, Oklahoma and Georgia are the only three states about which that statement is true.
Dan Robinson, a former city councilmember of Takoma Park, Maryland, has filed as a Green Party nominee for the lower house of the legislature this year. See this story. The districts elects three members. Thanks to Michael for the link.
On May 23, the Oklahoma legislature made a surprise decision to adjourn that very day, a week before the expected adjournment date. Therefore, HB 2134, the ballot access bill, did not pass. Even though it had passed both houses of the legislature, the two houses passed different versions. The conference committee had met and agreed on final wording, but there was no opportunity for each house to vote on the revised bill. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.
On May 23, the California Senate Appropriations Committee passed SCA 16 on a party line vote of 5-2. The measure would eliminate special elections when a vacancy occurs in the state legislature. The Governor would appoint a new legislator. The measure needs a two-thirds vote in each house of the legislature, and if it passes, it would go on the November 2016 ballot, since it is a proposed constitutional amendment.
