According to this story, 25 jurisdictions in Illinois are using presidential primary ballots today that are too large to be fed into the vote-counting machines. They will need to be trimmed before they can be fed into the machine.
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Rick Santorum was interviewed on March 19 on Fox & Friends. Watch the 5-minute interview here. In the fourth minute, Santorum is asked if he now wishes he had challenged Mitt Romney’s petitions in Illinois. The interviewers say that Romney could have been kept off the Republican presidential primary ballot in Illinois because he used a Massachusetts notary. Santorum says he does not approve of ballot challenges and advocates ballot access rules that do not disqualify legitimate candidates.
The Republican Party has complete control of Pennsylvania state government, and has been bottling up ballot access reform for the last year. It would be quite helpful if Santorum would use his influence in his home state’s party, and endorse the ballot access reform bill, SB 21. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
See this story to see a description of the Maine legislative hearing on the bill to hold presidential primaries in Maine in future years. Maine has been using caucuses instead of a presidential primary, starting in 2004.
Jill Stein, who is seeking primary season matching funds, recently received enough private contributions from residents of Illinois and Wisconsin so that those states now count toward the legal goal of twenty states. She had already met the threshold in California, Massachusetts, and New York. The law requires at least $5,000 from each of twenty states.
Because the New York congressional primary is far earlier than it has been in the past, the qualified minor parties of New York also faced a requirement this year that they make early choices for U.S. Senate in party meetings.
On March 11, the Independence Party chose Kirsten Gillibrand, who is the Democratic incumbent running for re-election. On March 17, the Green Party chose Colia Clark, who was also a U.S. Senate Green Party nominee in 2010 (there had been two U.S. Senate races in New York in 2010). On March 19, the Working Families Party chose Gillibrand. These meetings did not generate much publicity because the choice of nominee was not in suspense.
The Conservative Party meeting on March 19 did create news. The Conservative Party state committee unanimously chose Wendy Long, who is a legal scholar. She defeated two other candidates, both of whom hold public office. They are Congressman Bob Turner, and Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos. All three are also seeking the Republican nomination, and all three will be on the Republican primary ballot held June 26.
Long said she will run in November, even if she doesn’t get the Republican nomination. However, she is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. At the Republican State Committee meeting on March 16, she received 47% of the weighted ballots for the Republican endorsement, whereas Maragos received 27% and Turner received 25%. A candidate needed at least 25% to be on the Republican primary ballot automatically. Thanks to Ken Bush for this news.