Missouri Governor Signs Ballot Access Improvement Bill

Posted on by July 6, 2012
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On July 6, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon signed HB 1236. The bill deletes the requirement that a petition to place a newly-qualifying party on the ballot must list that group’s presidential nominee, and must also list the group’s candidates for presidential elector.

Missouri’s law had been quite irrational, until this bill was signed. The old law did not require the group’s nominees for office other than president and presidential elector to be listed on the petition. The old law was the product of a drafting error made back in 1993.

If this new law had been in effect earlier this year, it would have been helpful to Americans Elect. Americans Elect collected signatures on a petition in Missouri during 2011, but that petition didn’t list any presidential candidate, nor did it list any presidential elector candidates. Americans Elect never submitted that petition. The new law has no effect on Americans Elect in any event, since back on May 17, Americans Elect said it wouldn’t run a presidential candidate this year. Thanks to Ken Bush for the news about the Governor’s action.

California Bill, Banning Paying Registration Workers on a Per-Registration Card Basis, Did Not Pass Senate Public Safety Committee

Posted on by July 6, 2012
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On July 3, the California Senate Public Safety Committee did not pass AB 2058. The vote to pass it was 3-1, but the bill needed four votes to pass. This corrects an error made by this blog. The posting on the evening of July 3, saying the bill did pass, is in error. The Committee has five Democrats and two Republicans.

AB 2058 is the bill to make it illegal for registration drive workers to be paid on a per-registration card basis. The Senate Committee on Public Safety will not meet again this year, so the bill cannot pass this year, even though the Committee did authorize a reconsideration vote at some unspecified point in the future.

Senators who voted for the bill in the Senate Public Safety Committee are these three Democrats: Loni Hancock of Berkeley, Carol Liu of La Canada, and Curren Price of Inglewood. The “no” vote was cast by Joel Anderson, one of the two Republicans. Democratic Senators who did not vote are Ron Calderon of Montebello and Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento, the Senate President.

Georgia Greens Hope to Place a State Legislative Candidate on Ballot for First Time

Posted on by July 6, 2012
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The Georgia Green Party is working to place Kwabena Nkromo on the November ballot for the State House, 57th district. If the petition succeeds, it will be the first time the party has placed a nominee on the general election ballot, in a regularly-scheduled election, for any state or federal office in Georgia. The party has in the past been on the ballot for local partisan office.

Nkromo needs approximately 1,500 valid signature by August 6. He has been petitioning for the last two months. The 57th district is in southwest Atlanta. Assuming he gets on the ballot, he will face the winner of the Democratic primary. The two candidates in the Democratic primary, Pat Gardner and Rashad Taylor, are both incumbents. The recent redistricting placed both of them in the same district. See this story about Nkromo. The story has a small factual error; the election is on November 6, not July 31. July 31 is the date of the Democratic and Republican primaries.