On February 15, the Utah House passed HB 233 by a vote of 66-4. The bill says when a party meets the vote test, it is then on the ballot for the next two elections. Current law says when a party passes the vote test, it is only one for one more election.

The vote test is 2%. It is fairly easy for a party to meet the test in presidential years, when there are six statewide partisan races on the ballot in most years. But it is tough in mid-term years, when most commonly there is only one statewide race on the ballot, U.S. Senate. Every twelve years there is a midterm year with no statewide race, and in those years all parties automatically remain on.

The four “no” votes were two Democrats: Susan Duckworth and Neal Hendrickson; and two Republicans: Jim Bird and Wayne Harper.

On February 14, the Alabama Senate Constitution, Campaign Finance, Ethics & Elections Committee passed SB 15 by a vote of 5-0. This bill lowers the number of signatures for a statewide party to 5,000 signatures. For parties that are only trying to get on the ballot in part of the state, the bill lowers that petition requirement from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote within that district, to 1.5%, but with a cap at 5,000. The bill also lowers the petition requirement for independent candidates. Thanks to Josh Cassidy for this news.

On February 8, the Missouri House passed HB 1036 with only one “no” vote. The bill eliminates party logos from the November ballot. A “logo” is a cartoon-like emblem of a political party. County election officials requested this bill. They say that some voters think that the logo is a straight-ticket device. These voters draw a circle around the logo and then don’t vote for any candidates. Evidently they think that the logo is a straight-ticket device and that they have voted for all the nominees of their preferred party.