Current New York law provides that if no one receives at least 40% of the vote for a New York city mayoral primary, a run-off primary is held. According to this story, the entrance of former Congressman Anthony Weiner into the Democratic race makes it somewhat likely that no one will get as much as 40% of the vote.

The run-off primary would be held on October 1, using the old-fashioned mechanical voting machines that have been outlawed for federal elections, if the legislature passes S.4088. The Senate passed it on May 6 but it has not yet had a hearing in the Assembly Elections Committee. Revival of the mechanical voting machines is opposed by Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, and other groups, according to this press release. However, one advantage of the lever voting machines is that they save time, because they avoid having to print hundreds of thousands of paper ballots.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg supports the lever machines; see this story. Anthony Weiner favors ranked-choice voting, at least for primaries. See his point #44, page 15, in his program.

On May 15, the Illinois legislature passed HB 226. It says that 17-year-olds can register to vote in advance of any primary, if they will be age 18 by the time of the general election. Because the Illinois primary, for state and federal office, is always in March, the bill means that a majority of 17-year-olds will be able to vote in future primaries. There are other states with similar provisions, but all the other such states have a shorter time interval between the primary and the general.

Although Governor Pat Quinn hasn’t signed the bill yet, he has said he supports the idea. One consequence of this bill will be that 17-year-olds who register will also be able to sign petitions. It appears that they won’t be permitted to circulate petitions, however.

On May 22, a U.S. District Court in Arizona denied reconsideration in Arizona Libertarian Party v Bennett, 4:11cv-856. This is the case in which the Libertarian and Green Parties challenge the voter registration form, which has three checkboxes: Democratic, Republican, and “other”. The “other” box lets voters write-in the party, or independent status. Arizona has five qualified parties, all of which nominate by primary.

The parties will now appeal to the 9th circuit. The U.S. District Court Judge did re-write her opinion slightly, to delete a sentence which implied that the plaintiffs’ evidence was mistaken. Plaintiffs presented evidence, which is correct, that Arizona is the only state that lists only two parties on its voter registration form, and yet which regularly conducts primaries for other parties as well. In 2012, the state held primaries for the Americans Elect, Green, and Libertarian Parties.