According to this story in the Orlando, Florida Sentinel, Republican leaders in the state legislature seem inclined to retain Florida’s January presidential primary. Although bills are pending in both houses of the legislature to move the presidential primaries to March, the bills are sponsored by Democrats, and Republicans have a majority in both houses of the legislature. The bills are SB 860 and HB 695.
Bills have been introduced in both houses of the Hawaii legislature to provide that special elections should be conducted using Instant Runoff Voting. The House bill, HB 638, was to have had a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on February 1, but that hearing has been postponed to February 15. The identical Senate bill, SB 667, doesn’t have a hearing date yet.
Hawaii special elections include party labels on the ballot, but parties don’t have nominees. There is only one round in special elections. On May 22, 2010, Hawaii had held a special U.S. House election, in which the three leading candidates were Republican Charles Djou, and Democrats Colleen Hanabusa and Ed Case. Djou won with 39.4% of the total vote cast. The two leading Democrats, together, polled 58.4%, but they were both defeated since Djou polled the most votes. In November 2010, under a normal system in which parties have nominees, Djou was defeated.
The Oregon House Interim Committee on Rules has introduced many bills that affect minor parties and independent candidates. HB 2428 would eliminate fusion. Several parties could still nominate a candidate, but the candidate could only have one party label on the ballot. The candidate would choose which party label to use.
HB 2442, and also SB 263, would go into effect immediately and would say that no political party can have “independent” as its name. The bill would let the ballot-qualified Independent Party choose a new name. The bill would also provide that independent candidates, who are now on the ballot as “Nonaffiliated” would in the future be on the ballot as “Nonaffiliated/Independent.” The bill says that letting any party call itself the Independent Party is confusing.
HB 2432 says that party labels must be printed on the ballot without being abbreviated. In 2010, the Oregon Secretary of State permitted some counties to show only party abbreviations on the ballot. Virtually every voter knows what “Dem” and “Rep” means, but the abbreviations for minor parties are much less understood. For example, the Green Party was abbreviated “PGP” (which is an acronym for “Pacific Green Party”).
HB 2421 would require qualified minor parties to forward a list of voters who participate in their nomination process. Most ballot-qualified minor parties in Oregon nominate by convention, but the Independent Party nominated with a mail-ballot, paid for by the party itself.
An Oregon bill that only affects the major parties is HB 2492, which eliminates party officer elections from the primary ballot, and says parties should choose their officials any way they wish, but at their own expense.
On February 7, the Montana Senate passed SB 194. It provides that parties, and the campaigns of independent candidates, must submit the names of two candidates for presidential elector for each available seat. One is the elector and one is the alternate. If that party or campaign carries the state, and one of the presidential electors votes for someone for either president or vice-president other than the person expected, then that elector is deemed to have resigned and the alternate assumes the role and cast a vote.
On February 9, a special committee of the Massachusetts House determined that the new election to fill the disputed election in the Worcester 6 district won’t be held until May 10. The original election, of course, had been on November 2, 2010. The original returns showed the Republican challenger, Peter Durant, defeating the Democratic incumbent, Geraldo Alicea, by four votes. A recount showed Durant winning by one vote. Alicea then sued and the judge determined that the true results were a tie, and that a new election should be held. Now the legislative committee, which was charged with the details of the new election, has apparently determined that there must be a new primary as well. The new primary will probably be held on April 12 and the new election on May 10. See this story. In the meantime, Alicea holds the seat.
The 8th circuit will hold an oral argument in Libertarian Party of North Dakota v Jaeger, 10-3212, although the exact date hasn’t been set yet. It will be in late March or early April. This is the case that challenges the North Dakota law that does not permit a qualified party to run candidates for the legislature in November, unless approximately 10% to 15% of all the voters who show up to vote in the primary choose that party’s primary ballot. Because the overwhelming majority of primary voters, in North Dakota and generally, are more interested in voting in the major party primaries, in effect this means that minor parties can never have nominees for the legislature on the November ballot.
No minor party has appeared on a November ballot in North Dakota, for a state legislative race, with the party label, since 1976, when the American Party managed to attract an usually high vote into its primary.
March will be a very important month for constitutional ballot access lawsuits. The hearing in the 3rd circuit against the Pennsylvania system of putting minor parties and independent candidates at risk of paying fees of up to $110,000, if their statewide petition doesn’t have enough valid signatures, will be in the middle of March. And in March, the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to say if it will hear Ralph Nader’s ballot access case from Hawaii.