Periodically the Georgia State Election Board invites the public to comment on any policy matter involving elections. On Tuesday, May 14, at 10 a.m., there will be such a meeting. Here is the agenda. Thanks to Garland Favorito for the link.
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On May 7, the New York State Assembly passed A4980, a bill to provide public funding for candidates for state office. The vote was 88-50. Now the bill goes to the State Senate.
Like the Arizona and Maine public funding programs, but unlike the Connecticut program, the bill does not discriminate for or against any candidate on the basis of party affiliation or independent status. The bill requires candidates who receive public funding to participate in at least one candidate debate. These debates would be open to all ballot-listed candidates, whether the candidates were eligible for public funding or not. Here is the text of the bill. The more interesting parts start about mid-way through the bill; the bill has other provisions not related to public funding.
Two states, Michigan and Ohio, elect state judges in partisan elections, but both states have election laws that say party labels should not be on the ballot for judicial candidates, even though the candidates were nominated by political parties. In Michigan, party conventions choose nominees for Supreme Court Justice, and voters elect them in November, but the November ballot carries no party labels for these races, and voters must do independent research to learn which party nominated which candidate.
Ohio is somewhat similar. Voters in partisan primaries nominate candidates for Judge, and the winners appear on the November ballot. But, as in Michigan, party labels are not printed on the November ballot in these races, and voters must do independent research to know which party put which candidate on the ballot.
Recently, the Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice, Maureen O’Connor, told the State Bar that judicial partisan primaries should be eliminated, in favor of non-partisan primaries and elections. But Democratic Party state chair Chris Redfern, who apparently was at the same meeting, disagreed, saying the existing partisan primary system should be preserved, but that party labels should be placed on general election ballots. See this story.
In July 2010, the Ohio Democratic Party filed a federal lawsuit, to force the state to print party labels on general election ballots for judicial candidates. On August 19, 2010, U.S. District Court Susan Dlott refused to grant injunctive relief, but she still hasn’t ruled on declaratory relief. The opinion could come at any time. The case is Ohio Council 8 American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees v Husted, southern district, 1:10cv-504. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On May 10, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed HB 1303, which makes Colorado the third state in which virtually all ballots will be cast by mail. See this story.
Kevin Halverson, who was elected Sheriff of Minidoka County, Idaho, as a Republican in 2004, and re-elected as a Republican in 2008 and 2012, has changed his voter registration to Libertarian. See this story. Minidoka County has a population of 20,069 and is primarily an agricultural county in the Snake River Valley.
Minidoka County has not traditionally been a center of strength for the Idaho Libertarian Party. In 2012 Gary Johnson polled 1.45% of the vote in Idaho, but only .79% in Minidoka County. In the ten presidential elections in which the party has been on the Idaho ballot, the county gave a smaller share of the vote to the Libertarian nominee than that nominee did in the state as a whole, except in 1976 and 2008.
Halverson’s term will be up in 2016.