On April 4, the Montana Senate passed SB 408 by a vote of 28-22. This is the bill to provide that in 2014, the voters will be asked if they want a top-two primary system. All Republicans voted for the bill except for one; all Democrats voted against it. Thanks to Mike Fellows for this news.
On March 28, the Hawaii Senate Ways & Means Committee passed HB 1481, which would institute a program of public funding for candidates for state house of representatives. Here is a copy of the bill, although it may not be the latest version. The bill had passed the House on March 5. It does not discriminate for or against any candidate on the basis of partisan affiliation.
According to this story, Geovanni Regalado, who is on the May 14 ballot for Mayor of Passaic, New Jersey, has filed a lawsuit to remove his name. The law says he should have withdrawn 60 days before the election, but he argues the law is not mandatory.
On April 3, the Montana Senate State Administration Committee passed HB 120, which makes two ballot access improvements. It permits independent presidential and vice-presidential candidates to be on the November ballot, even if they had some association with a qualified political party in the preceding period; (2) it moves the non-presidential independent petition deadline from March to May.
In 2012, two states had petition deadlines for either newly-qualifying parties or independent candidates declared unconstitutional. Those two states were California and Montana. Whereas the Montana legislature is correcting the invalid law, there is no bill in the California legislature to repair the unconstitutional filing deadline in California.
On April 2, St. Louis, Missouri, held partisan elections for Mayor, Comptroller, and 14 Alderman races. The only parties that nominated any candidates for the citywide offices were the Democratic Party and the Green Party. Here are the unofficial returns, although they don’t show party labels. Nevertheless, party labels were on the ballot. The Green citywide nominees were: Mayor James McNeely 15.54%; Comptroller Jerome Bauer 15.00%.
For the fourteen alderman races, the Greens had two nominees and the Republican Party had one. The Green results for Alderman were: Ward 7 alderman David Gordon 23.02%; Ward 9 alderman Susie Parker 16.62%. The only Republican nominee, running in Ward 23, was Robert Crump, who received 13.37%.
The St. Louis Green Party is ballot-qualified and has its own primary. In its March 5 primary, only about 120 voters participated. The St. Louis Green Party is not affiliated with the national Green Party. Jill Stein was not on the ballot in Missouri in November 2012.
