On March 5, the Hawaii House passed HB 321, which permits individuals to register to vote on election day. The bill now goes to the Senate.
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On February 19, Arizona SB 1388 passed the Senate Elections Committee unanimously. It says that candidates for statewide office and legislature would be permitted to collect signatures electronically. In Arizona, all candidates for partisan office (except presidential candidates running in a presidential primary) need petitions, whether they are aiming at a primary ballot or the general election ballot.
The bill has 9 sponsors, one Democrat (Steve Farley), and these eight Republicans: Richard Crandall, Michele Reagan, Steve Pierce, Bob Worsley, Adam Driggs, Chester Crandell, Steve Yarbrough, and Kimberly Yee.
The law blog “U.S. Ninth Circuit” has this interesting story about the March 6 decision of the 9th circuit in Los Angeles County Libertarian Party v Bowen. Thanks to John Jascob for the link.
Voters in the New Orleans area voted on November 6, 2012, on whether bridge tolls should remain on a crossing over the Mississippi River. The vote for tolls passed by only 36 votes. But then it was discovered that provisional ballots did not include the ballot measure, so the vote has been invalidated and a new vote will be held in May. See this story.
Los Angeles elected a new mayor, and members of the city council, on March 5. This Los Angeles Times story says even after all the ballots are counted, turnout will be under 20% of the registered voters. Los Angeles, like all cities in California, uses non-partisan elections.
The results, as of the morning of March 7, are: Eric Garcetti 93,978; Wendy Greuel 83,308; Kevin James 46,684; Jan Perry 45,480; Emanuel Pleitez 11,716; Norton Sandler 1,598; Addie Miller 1,401; Yehuda Draiman 1,174. No one got as much as 50%, so there will be a run-off on May 21.
Norton Sandler was the Socialist Workers Party candidate. His percentage, .56%, is not as high as the percentage received by the Socialist Workers nominee in the 2009 Mayoral election. In the 2009 election, James Harris received .90%.