On April 2, 2014, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed AB 419. It says that write-ins will no longer be counted, unless the write-in candidate files paperwork. As before, presidential candidates file a write-in declaration of candidacy. For office other than President, write-in votes will only be counted for candidates who filed campaign finance statements. Thanks to Tim San Souci for this news.
The Sunday, May 18 New York Times has this account of the Libertarian Party’s history 1976-1980 and its interaction with David Koch and some of his brothers. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
Washington state candidate filing for the August 5 primary has closed. Here is the list. The state has no statewide offices up this year. For the ten U.S. House races, there are 49 candidates: 23 Republicans, 13 Democrats, one Green, and 12 independents. Some of the independents chose “independent” as a ballot label; some chose “no party preference”; one chose “Work and Wealth”; one chose “National Union”; one chose “Human Rights”; one chose “Citizens.”
Each U.S. House district has at least one candidate from each of the two major parties. Consequently, it is overwhelmingly likely that the November ballot for U.S. House will list only Republicans and Democrats. Ever since 2008, when Washington state started using top-two, the only time someone who wasn’t a major party nominee appeared on the November ballot for Congress or statewide office was once in 2010, when an independent qualified for US House, 7th district, in a race in which no Republican had run.
On May 16, former Arizona state legislator Tom O’Halleran said he will run for the State Senate as an independent candidate. See this story. He changed his registration from “Republican” to “independent” on May 14. The petition deadline this year for independent candidates in Arizona is May 28. O’Halleran served in the legislature for eight years as a Republican.
Arizona is one of only a handful of states in which no one has ever been elected to the state legislature except Republican and Democratic nominees. Of course, one reason for that is that Arizona has only been a state since 1912. It is unknown if any minor party or independent candidates were ever elected to the Arizona territorial legislature.
A U.S. District Court in Michigan will hear Moore v Johnson on Wednesday, May 21, at 9:30 a.m. This is one of the cases that challenges Michigan’s law requiring candidate petitions to be circulated only by registered voters. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
