On May 1, 2013, five political scientists released a research paper, “A Primary Cause of Partisanship? Nominating systems and legislators.” The 26-page paper can be read here. After clicking on the link, click on the “Download this Paper” button. The paper describes the authors’ opinions about their findings. In other words, they speculate on why the theory that open primaries elect more moderate legislators turns out not to be true. The authors are Nolan McCarty, Eric McGhee, Seth Masket, Steven Rogers, and Boris Shor.

On July 30, a federal lawsuit was filed against Nebraska’s law that makes it illegal to pay circulators on a per-signature basis. Bernbeck v Gale, case number not assigned yet. The restriction applies to all kinds of petitions and was passed in 2008 over the Governor’s veto. Another part of the 2008 law, which made it illegal for out-of-state residents to circulate in Nebraska, has already been declared unconstitutional.

The new lawsuit also challenges the Nebraska law that requires initiatives to obtain the signatures of at least 5% of the voters in at least two-fifths of Nebraska’s counties. Nebraska has 93 counties and the overwhelming majority are in the center and western part of the state and have very low populations. Generally, county distribution requirements for all types of petitions have been held unconstitutional when they have been challenged.

Arkansas requires 10,000 signatures for a group to become a qualified party. Both the Libertarian Party and the Green Party just launched their Arkansas petitions. State law requires the groups to choose their own start dates, but they must finish within 90 days after starting.

This will be the fifth time the Arkansas Green Party had done this petition drive. Each election year, the Green Party polls a large vote in Arkansas. In 2008 and again in 2012, it even elected a state legislator. But the Arkansas law irrationally removes a party from the ballot unless it polls 3% for the office at the top of the ticket (President in presidential election years, Governor in midterm years). So another expensive, illogical petition drive is about to occur, which not only costs the Green Party scarce resources, but also makes extra work for election officials who must then check the petition.