The January 13 Birmingham News has this editorial, calling on the Alabama legislature to pass one or both of Senator Cam Ward’s ballot access reform bills. The major newspapers in Alabama have consistently been helpful on this issue. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
Since 1999, parties may be ballot-qualified in Florida simply by showing the state that they are organized. However, in 2011 the legislature passed a bill that imposes stricter requirements for being organized. The Secretary of State has now ruled that many parties that were previously organized no longer meet the requirements. The number of qualified parties last autumn was 34, but currently there are 15.
Among the parties that are still active, but which don’t enjoy qualified status, are the Prohibition Party, the Socialist Party, and the Socialist Workers Party. At any time, however, these parties or any parties are free to re-file. The new rules are not intrinsically difficult, but they are very detailed and fussy. For example, the Prohibition Party filing was rejected for these reasons: (1) no provision was made for the party to raise and expend funds; (2) the filing says that Roberts Rules of Order “will be the basic guide”, but the filing was supposed to say that Roberts Rules of Order (or any other authority on procedure) will be the “governing guide for all meetings”; (3) the submission doesn’t explain how the party will fill a vacancy in its nominations for public office; (4) the submission says the posting of party meetings will be posted on the national party’s web page, but the law says notice of meetings must be on the state party’s web page; (5) the submission doesn’t say if the listed officers are “state officers” or “state executive committee officers”; (6) the submission doesn’t explain clearly who elects the officers of the state executive committee; (7) the submission doesn’t explain how the party will conduct campaigns.
The parties that are currently qualified are: Americans Elect, Constitution, Democratic, Ecology, Florida Pirate, Florida Whig, Green, Independence, Independent Party, Libertarian, Objectivist, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Reform, Republican, and Tea. The Conservative Party seems to be in limbo: it hasn’t made any filing under the new law, and the Secretary of State’s letters to the party have been returned by the post office, but the state seems to have retained the existence of the party because the party owes thousands of dollars in fines for not having made financial reports
On January 10, the California Senate Elections Committee unanimously passed AB 1413, which makes several changes to the “top-two” system. The worst change is that write-in space will no longer be printed on general election ballots for Congress and partisan state office.
California will almost certainly join Louisiana as one of only two states that has ever had write-in space on general election ballots, but then eliminated them, and now doesn’t permit them. Assuming the bill passes, there will be six states that ban write-ins in the general election. Four of them, Nevada, Hawaii, South Dakota and Oklahoma, have never permitted write-ins.
The Ohio legislature banned write-ins in 1947, but in 1968 a 3-judge U.S. District Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution protects write-ins, and restored them in Ohio. The Florida legislature banned write-ins in 1977, but in 1979 the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the State Constitution protects them, and restored them.
Former State Senator Steve Peace, a proponent of the top-two system, testified at the hearing that the Committee should amend the bill and restore write-ins. However, the Committee did not accept his advice. Assemblyman Paul Fong, author of AB 1413, has said that he may introduce a separate bill to restore write-in space, but one wonders why, if he supports write-ins, he didn’t just amend AB 1413 to permit write-ins. Charlie Munger, a multi-millionaire who has been paying the legal bills for the defense of the top-two system, testified for the bill.
The California Senate Elections Committee has five members, but only two members were in attendance to hear the testimony. The other three Senators made an appearance after the testimony was over, and voted for the bill without having heard the witnesses. The bill now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Another change the bill makes is to change ballot labels. Existing law says the ballot should say, after the name of each candidate, “My party preference is the (whichever) party.” The bill shortens labels so that the ballot will say, “Party preference: (whichever) party.”
Political parties in Delaware may be ballot-qualified in 2012 if they have at least 608 registered members. The law requires registration of one-tenth of 1% of the state total, as of December 31, 2011. The registration data for that date is now known.
Besides the Democratic and Republican Parties, the only parties that currently meet the requirement are the Independent Party and the Libertarian Party. The Independent Party has 2,401 registrants, and the Libertarian Party has 819 registrants. However, it isn’t the number of registered voters in the party now that counts, but the number as of August 21, 2012.
Currently, parties that don’t meet the requirement, but which are at least half-way, are the Green Party with 530, the Working Families Party with 486, and the Constitution Party with 454. It will be more difficult for these parties, or any parties, to accumulate more registrants after February 24. Starting on that day, voters may not switch parties, until after the presidential primary is over. Starting on April 25, they can again switch parties, but only for a few more months.
The Working Families Party has still not decided whether it will increase its registration. The Green Party and the Constitution Parties are working on their registration drives.
On January 12, a North Carolina 3-judge state court heard three and one-half hours of argument over the redistricting plan, but not only didn’t rule from the bench, but scheduled another hearing for January 20. See this story.
It is somewhat likely that North Carolina will postpone its May primary. If that happens, independent candidates will have more time to submit petitions. Currently, independent candidate petitions are due in June. In 2004, when redistricting was late to be settled, North Carolina extended the independent candidate deadline for all offices, not just district offices.
