On January 3, supporters of the initiative process in Washington state submitted 345,000 signatures on their initiative that would itself make it easier to petition for future initiatives. The requirement is 241,153 valid signatures. The initiative would outlaw harassment of petitioners, and would expand the time for circulating statewide initiatives from 6 months to one year. See this story.
Three South Carolina State Senators have introduced SB 2, which would require all candidates for state and local office to file electronic statements of interest. Existing law requires electronic filing only for candidates who are not already public officials. During 2012, 250 candidates who were not already public officials were kept off primary ballots for failure to file electronically. The vast majority of these candidates had filed via paper and had not been informed that they had to file both paper forms and electronic forms.
The sponsors are Chip Campsen (R-Charleston), Larry Martin (R-Pickens) and Ronnie Cromer (R-Prosperity). The bill has already been sent to a Subcommittee.
Missouri U.S. House member Jo Ann Emerson, 8th district, was re-elected last November, but she has since said she will resign soon. A special election to fill the vacancy is likely in the spring. Ballot-qualified parties will nominate candidates in this special election by committee meeting. See this story, which describes the Republicans who are already talking to party committee members.
On January 3, it was revealed that the seven members of the California Assembly Elections Committee will be five Democrats and two Republicans. The chair will again be Assemblyman Paul Fong of Santa Clara County. The other Democrats will be: Raul Bocanegra, from the 39th district in the San Fernando Valley; Rob Bonta, from the 18th district in Oakland; Isadore Hall, from the 64th district in Los Angeles; and Henry T. Perea, from the 31st district in Fresno.
The two Republicans will be: Tim Donnelly, from the 33rd district in San Bernardino County; and Dan Logue, from the 3rd district in Butte County and adjoining counties. If you live in the districts of any of these legislators, you might wish to ask him to introduce a bill restoring write-in space to the general election ballot, or a bill letting any candidate place his or her party on the ballot, or a bill repealing the unconstitutional residency requirement for petition circulators, or a proposed constitutional amendment to repeal the top-two system, or a bill to make it easier for a party to maintain its qualified status, or a bill to lower the number of signatures in lieu of a filing fee. Or anything else that is meaningful to you.
Politex has a story about the presidential write-ins in November in Tarrant and Travis Counties, the only two truly populous Texas counties that count all the presidential write-ins, not just the write-ins for the declared presidential candidates. Ron Paul easily got the most write-ins. Thanks to Gene Berkman for the link.
