On May 8, the Minnesota House defeated HF 799 by 62-71. This is the National Popular Vote Plan bill.
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On May 8, the North Carolina House Elections Committee voted to alter HB 794, the ballot access reform bill, into a study bill. The Committee then passed the bill without opposition. Assuming it is signed into law, the legislature will study ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates before February 2014. This means public hearings will be held, and the joint committee will issue a report. The second half of the current session will then use the study results to decide whether to pass the original bill.
The bill lowers the number of signatures for statewide independent candidates and newly-qualifying parties from approximately 90,000 signatures to approximately 11,000. Thanks to Jordon Greene for this information.
The Liberal Party of New York was ballot-qualified 1946 through 2002. It went off the ballot in November 2002 because its gubernatorial nominee, Andrew Cuomo, only polled 15,761 votes in November, and New York state law requires at least 50,000 votes for a party to retain its place on the ballot.
Even though the Liberal Party has not been ballot-qualified for over ten years, it still exists, and it plans to petition to place John Catsimatidis on the November ballot for Mayor of New York city. Catsimatidis is also running in the Republican primary for Mayor. See this story. Thanks to Richard Grayson for the link.
On May 7, Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman signed LB 349, which, among other things, repeals the primary screen-out for independent presidential petitions. Now, Texas is the only state that bars primary voters from signing a ballot access petition. In Texas, primary voters can’t sign for an independent candidate for any office, nor can they sign for a newly-qualifying party.
At one time eleven states had primary screen-outs, but one by one they have all been repealed, except in Texas. Such laws once existed in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and West Virginia.
This Politico story analyzes election law in Kentucky and Florida and concludes that neither Rand Paul nor Marco Rubio can simultaneously run for the Republican presidential nomination, and for re-election to the U.S. Senate, in 2016. Thanks to Gene Berkman for the link.