On February 15, the Nebraska Democratic Party voted to let independent voters vote in the 2014 Democratic primary, for all partisan office. See this story. Under the U.S. Supreme Court decision Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut, issued in 1986, each party that has a primary is free to decide for itself whether to let independents vote in its primaries.
On February 18, the California Secretary of State released new registration data, the first state tally since the tally of February 10, 2013.
The new tally shows fewer registered voters than the tally from February 2013, because during the interval counties have purged deadwood from the list. Among the parties that were qualified during 2013, the new percentages for each are: Democratic 43.58%, Republican 28.73%, American Independent 2.66%, Libertarian .64%, Green .62%, Peace & Freedom .43%, Americans Elect .0197%.
The February 2013 percentages for those parties were: Democratic 43.93%, Republican 28.94%, American Independent 2.64%, Green .63%, Libertarian .61%, Peace & Freedom .34%, Americans Elect .0189%.
The number of registered voters who are not members of any party is difficult to know, because some counties now put voters who leave the party question blank into the “other parties” category, which also includes people are registered into unqualified parties. In the new report, “no party preference” includes 20.94%, and “other” includes 2.39%. By contrast, in the February 2013 tally, “no party preference” was at 20.86% and “other” was 2.04%.
Among the unqualified parties, the Reform Party continues to be the largest by far, with 16,377 registrants, compared to 16,583 in February 2013. Constitution is now at 355, compared to 304 in February 2013. Justice is now at 291, compared to 286 in February 2013.
The new tally is the first tally at which Libertarians outnumber Greens, since the Green registration drive that put it on the ballot in 1991.
On February 18, a subcommittee of the New Hampshire House Election Law Committee held a work session on two bills that ease the definition of “political party”. The subcommitee recommended passage of HB 1322, which lowers the vote test from 4% to 3%. As the subcommittee members noted, the vote test was 3% in New Hampshire from 1891 until 1997, when it was raised to 4%. The vote test applies to gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidates. New Hampshire doesn’t elect any other statewide offices except for President.
The full Election Law Committee will consider the bill on February 20.
The subcommittee did not approve HB 1497, which lowers the vote test to 1% and also lowers the number of signatures for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. Thanks to Darryl Perry for this news.
On February 21-22, state officials of the Alabama Republican Party will determine whether 18 particular Republican candidates should be removed from the party’s June 2014 primary. See this story. Many, if not most, of the challenges are based on allegations that the challenged candidates are not loyal to the Republican Party, or that they took money from groups that the Republican Party doesn’t like.
Marianne Williamson, the independent candidate in California’s 33rd U.S. House district this year, and a well-known author, has hired John Shallman and Joe Trippi to work on her campaign. See this story. Shallman and Trippi normally work for Democrats. Williamson is actively trying to raise $1,500,000 for her campaign.
