Ohio holds local elections in November 2013; almost all of them are non-partisan. In two counties, a surprisingly large number of candidates failed to get on the ballot, because of flaws in their petitions. See this story about Franklin County, where 16 candidates failed; and this story about Madison County, where 9 candidates failed. Thanks to Steve Linnabary for the links.
On August 22, the Hawaii Democratic Party submitted an affidavit to a U.S. District Court that is hearing the party’s lawsuit against the open primary. The state party chairman submitted information about the party’s current policy of inviting Hawaii registered voters to join the party. The affidavit says the party has approximately 65,000 members. One joins the party by going to the party’s web page and filling out an application. Members sign that the generally agree with the party’s goals. Here is the form. The party asks for a contribution of $25, but it is voluntary.
The state still hasn’t submitted its brief in defense of the current election law, which requires all qualified parties to nominate by primary. Hawaii voter registration forms do not ask the applicant to choose a party, and on primary day, any voter is free to vote in any party’s primary.
For thirty years, the Massachusetts Democratic Party has had a bylaw that says no one can get on the Massachusetts Democratic primary ballot without getting the support of at least 15% of the delegates at a party endorsements meeting. This rule is not in the election code, but courts have ruled that the party may enforce this party bylaw.
The party is somewhat worried that, with at least four gubernatorial candidates announced for 2014, the rule is too stringent. The party’s Rules Committee is proposing that the 15% rule be retained, but that candidates at party meetings get two chances to meet the 15% requirement. Existing law says that after the first convention ballot, everyone who didn’t get 15% is eliminated. The change would give candidates who failed to get 15% on the first vote another chance. See this story.
Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks Party of Australia, hoped that his party would poll enough votes to cause him to be elected to the Australian Senate. If he were elected to the Australian Senate, his chances of leaving the Ecuador embassy in London (where he is a virtual prisoner) would have been enhanced.
Under Australia’s propotional representation system for Senate elections, it is somewhat plausible that he could have been elected to the Senate, if he had kept peace within the party he founded. However, as this story explains, the party is in disarray because Assange made decisions for the party behind the back of the party’s officers.
Democracy Resources, of Portland, Oregon, has two useful charts on its web page for anyone interested in qualifying a statewide initiative for 2014. One chart shows the number of signatures, the deadlines, and other useful information about the requirements. The other chart estimates how much the company would charge to qualify an initiative in any particular state. See here. Click on either chart to enlarge. Democracy Resources is a professional petitioning company. Thanks to Blair Bobier for the link.
