On March 18, the Kentucky Senate passed SB 205, which lets candidates run simultaneously for President (or Vice-President) and some other office simultaneously. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news. The bill now goes to the House.
Reply
On March 18, Pennsylvania held a special election to fill the vacant State Senate seat, 28th district. In special elections in Pennsylvania, qualified parties nominate by party meeting; there is no primary. The Republican Party chose Ron Miller, the state representative in the area who had served eight terms. The Democratic Party nominated Linda Small. Scott Wagner, who is a registered Republican but who was not chosen by his party, then launched a write-in campaign, and has been elected. The district is centered on York County.
This is the first time someone has been elected to the Pennsylvania legislature who was not a major party nominee since 1934, when the Socialist Party elected two state representatives.
The preliminary election returns are: Ron Miller 5,920; Linda Small 5,704; total number of write-ins 10,595. Election officials have not canvassed the write-ins yet, but because Wagner was the only person campaigning as a write-in candidate, it is assumed that the overwhelming majority of those write-ins are for Wagner. Pennsylvania does not have a procedure for a write-in candidate to file a declaration of candidacy, and all write-in votes are legally valid if they are for individuals who meet the legal qualifications for the office. This story explains the issues that Wagner ran on. He denounced Pennsylvania’s legislative pensions and highlighted one particular retired state legislator who receives a pension of $286,000 per year.
On March 18, John Mirisch sued the California Secretary of State for rejecting his declaration of candidacy. He is running for State Senate, 26th district. His paperwork was rejected because he had faxed it, although a few days later he supplemented the filing with an original document. Mirisch is a Republican and the Mayor of Beverly Hills. If he doesn’t get on the ballot, there will be no Republican in that race. The case is Mirisch v Bowen, 34-2014-80001790, Sacramento Superior Court. See this story.
The Orlando Sentinel has this op-ed by Neal Weare, arguing that U.S. adult citizens living in overseas territories should have the right to vote, at least for President. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
As previously noted, on March 14, a U.S. District Court ruled that Tennessee’s law that disqualifies a party from the ballot after just one election, if it fails the 5% vote test, is unconstitutional. The basis is Equal Protection, because parties that meet the vote test are then ballot-qualified for the next two elections.
Here is a newspaper story about the decision, in the Johnson City Press.
Meanwhile, committees in both houses of the Tennessee legislature had been expected to hold hearings on the bill lowering the statewide petition for newly-qualifying parties from 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote (slightly over 40,000 signatures) to exactly 2,500 signatures. But both committees have put over the hearing until March 25.