The Nation has this interview with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont). Sanders says he is thinking about running for president and if he did run, he has not decided whether he would run independently of the Democratic Party, or participate in the Democratic Party presidential primaries. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
David Grosso, a city councilmember in Washington, D.C., has introduced this bill to use Instant Runoff Voting in city partisan elections, for both the primary and general. The bill doesn’t have a bill number yet.
He has also introduced a bill to let independent voters join a party on primary day, giving them an opportunity to vote in partisan primaries. Current law does not permit voters to change from independent status to membership in a party during the 30 days preceding a primary.
On March 6, the Third Circuit heard oral arguments in Constitution Party v Aichele, 13-1952. This is the case in which the Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties are challenging the unique Pennsylvania system that puts petitioning groups at risk of as much as $110,000 in court costs if they submit a petition that is found not to have enough valid signatures. The hearing went well, and it is very likely that the three judges will find that the plaintiffs do have standing. If that happens, the case will be sent back to the lower court, which had ruled that the parties don’t have standing.
The hearing lasted 45 minutes, and a good number of minor party supporters were in the audience, including Cheri Honkala, the Green Party vice-presidential nominee in 2012. The three judges are Thomas Ambro, Kent Jordan, and Jane Roth.
Bills are pending in both houses of the Maryland legislature to specify that all registered voters, and not just members of the two major parties, are eligible to serve on government boards. They are SB 645, by Senator William Ferguson (D-Baltimore) and HB 1071, by Delegate Jolene Ivey (D-Cheverly). Here is a news story about these bills, and also the ballot access bill mentioned in the previous blog post. Thanks to Brian Bittner for the link.
The Maryland Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs will hear SB 1032 on March 13 at 1 p.m. This is the bill that lowers the number of registered voters a party must have to retain its place on the ballot, from 1% of the state total, to exactly 10,000. The existing 1% registration test for keeping a party on the ballot has never been used by any party other than the two major parties, and requires approximately 40,000 members. If the bill passes, the Libertarian Party would immediately benefit, and the Greens would like to benefit soon, because there are over 8,400 registered Greens.
The Libertarian and Green Parties are on the ballot now, but only because they submitted a petition during 2011, and when a party successfully petitions, it gets the next two elections, so the 2011 petition covers 2012 and 2014. Thanks to Brian Bittner for this news.
