On April 18, the Tennessee Senate unanimously passed SR 37, which sets up a Senate commission to study ballot access for minor parties. Read it here. Because this is just a Senate study, the resolution is now passed; there is no involvement with the House or the Governor.
On April 19, election officials in San Mateo County, California, discovered 65 ballots from November 2012 that had been cast, but never counted. See this story. Thanks to AroundtheCapitol for the link.
On April 18, Alabama SB 405 passed the Senate Constitution, Campaign Finance, Ethics & Elections Committee by a vote of 4-2. It would provide that voter registration forms ask voters to choose a party. This would make it possible for parties to close their primaries. Alabama has always had open primaries. Thanks to Michael Drucker for this news.
The Clarion Ledger of Jackson, Mississippi, has this story about the National Popular Vote Plan movement. One of the most interesting details in this story is an account of what happened in Mississippi in 1944. According to the story, the state Democratic Party convention “secretly” chose presidential elector candidates who were not intending to vote for Franklin Roosevelt, but Senator Harry Byrd. But the “secret” got out, and the Governor called the legislature into special session, and the legislators (all of whom were Democrats) named a different slate of elector candidates for the Democratic Party only a week before the election. The ballots were re-printed to replace the first slate with the newer slate.
The New York Times has this story about Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to eliminate the Wilson-Pakula law. The article is badly titled. The name of the article is “A bid to limit each candidate to one ballot line is stirring debate.” Actually the article does not mention one person or group who is advocating eliminating fusion, although the article does quote one political science professor who hints that would be a good idea. Thanks to Richard Grayson for the link.
