On January 25, a state court judge in Wisconsin granted state elections officials 61 days to check the recall petitions for Governor and Lieutenant Governor. The two offices, although elected jointly, required separate petitions for the recall drive. See this story.
James Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute, has this commentary about this year’s Republican Party presidential nomination contest. James Zogby is the brother of pollster John Zogby.
The Maine petition to put Americans Elect on the 2012 ballot has enough valid signatures, according to the Secretary of State. This is probably the 2nd toughest petition drive that Americans Elect has completed so far. The number of signatures is very large, and no one can sign unless he or she is a registered voter but not a registered member of any of the three qualified parties. The requirement is 28,639 signatures, 5% of the 2010 gubernatorial vote total. Because the deadline is so early, the signatures had to be gathered in the autumn and early part of the winter.
The only other party that ever completed this Maine party petition was the Reform Party, in 1995.
Americans Elect won’t be ballot-qualified in Maine, despite this petition success, until it holds a town caucus in at least 14 of the 16 counties. UPDATE: Americans Elect needs a town caucus in all 16 counties. Although the law was changed in 2011 to reduce the number of counties, the law only affects parties that were already on the ballot in the preceding election, an obvious equal protection violation.
On Thursday, January 26, two important legislative hearings will take place in California. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Rules Committee will meet at 1:30 pm in Room 263 of City Hall to hear two bills on Instant Runoff Voting. One bill would eliminate it; the other bill would preserve it and expand the number of choices for voters. Currently voters are limited to a First, Second and Third Choice vote. UPDATE: the hearing time has been changed to 2:30 pm.
Also on January 26, the California Assembly Elections Committee will hear AB 1413 sometime in the morning, in room 3162 of the State Capitol. The bill would delete write-in space on general election ballots for Congress and partisan state office. The bill has already passed the State Senate. The Committee won’t say what time the hearing is; instead the hearing will be held as soon as the Assembly floor session ends, which will probably be in the mid-morning.
Senator Mike Delph has withdrawn SB 68, which would have provided a second means for a presidential candidate to get on a primary ballot. Current law requires a petition of 4,500 signatures, with at least 500 signatures from each U.S. House district. SB 68 would have permitted a candidate to also get on the ballot if he or she pays a filing fee of $10,000. But, on January 24, he withdrew it, because the bill had been criticized by people who said it isn’t fair to change the rules for this year’s election. One wonders why Senator Delph didn’t just amend the bill to provide that it doesn’t take effect until 2016. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.
The Indiana presidential primary is May 8, and the petition deadline is February 10, at noon.
