The South Dakota Secretary of State has determined that Michael Myers will appear on the November 2014 ballot as an independent gubernatorial candidate. See this story.

From 1928 through 1994, there were no independent gubernatorial candidates in South Dakota, but independents did appear on the ballot for Governor in 1998 and 2002. Although the election returns for 1930, 1932, and 1934 list an “independent” candidate for Governor, in those three years, the candidate was actually the Communist Party nominee.

On April 23, the Oklahoma Senate passed HB 2134 by a vote of 28-16. The bill had already passed the House, but because the Senate added some additional provisions, it must return to the House. Here is the text of the amended bill. UPDATE: the “yes” votes included 19 Republicans and 9 Democrats. The “no” votes included 15 Republicans and one Democrat. The four senators who didn’t vote include two Republicans and two Democrats.

The bill lowers the number of signatures for a newly-qualifying party from 5% of the last vote cast, to 2.5%. If this provision were in effect this year, the number of signatures for 2014 would be 33,372 signatures instead of 66,744.

The bill also lowers the number of signatures for an independent presidential candidate, and the presidential nominee of an unqualified party, from 3% of the last presidential vote, to 2.5% of the last presidential vote. It moves the petition deadline for independent presidential petitions and unqualified party presidential petitions from July 15 to July 1.

The bill also says that presidential electors who don’t vote for the presidential candidate in the electoral college that they were expected to vote for are deemed to have resigned and will be replaced by the other electors. Of course, if the entire slate of electors refused to vote for the expected person, that system wouldn’t work. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.

On April 23, the California Senate Elections Committee passed SCA 16, a proposed state constitutional amendment. The amendment says when there is a vacancy in the legislature, there won’t be a special election, and the Governor will appoint someone from the same party. If the empty seat had been held by an independent, the Governor can appoint anyone of any partisan affiliation.

The bill needed three votes in the 5-member Committee, and only received three votes. The chair of the Committee, Senator Norma Torres, did not vote for SCA 16, even though she is a Democrat and the sponsor of the amendment is the Democratic President Pro Tem of the Senate, Senator Darrell Steinberg. The bill needs a two-thirds vote in each House, and is unlikely to pass the full Senate.

Jeff Hewitt, a city councilmember in Calimesa, California, and a member of the Libertarian Party, testified against the bill, and his testimony was quoted in this Los Angeles Times story. Gale Morgan, vice-chair of the state Libertarian Party, also testified against the bill. No other organization sent witnesses to testify against the bill, although Californians for Electoral Reform sent a spokesperson to point out that since the rationale for the bill is to save money, money could be saved if special elections used Instant Runoff Voting, to avoid two-round elections.