Journalist John Avlon has this lengthy and sympathetic article about Americans Elect on The Daily Beast. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
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The North Carolina ballot access reform bill, HB 32, which has already passed the House, is set for a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee in the next week, which means it will then receive a vote on the Senate floor if it passes Committee. It is believed that the Committee will support the bill, because otherwise it would not have been set for a hearing. The exact date of the hearing is not yet determined. The bill lowers the number of signatures for minor parties and statewide independent candidates from 2% of the last gubernatorial vote, to one-fourth of 1% of the number of registered voters. Thanks to Brian Irving for this news.
One-fourth of 1% of the number of registered voters currently is 15,327 valid signatures. However, the tally that will be used for the calculation, should this bill be signed into law, will be in the spring of 2012, so the number by then would probably be slightly higher, as voter registration continues to increase. A good guess is 16,000 signatures. UPDATE: the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing is set for 9 a.m. on Thursday, July 28.
The July 23 print edition of the Des Moines Register carries this op-ed by Jacqueline Salit, President of Independent Voting (also known as the Committee for a Unified Independent Party). It suggests that President Obama should appoint two members of the Federal Election Commission who are neither Democrats nor Republicans.
On July 22, Donald Trump was interviewed by Greta Van Susteren on Fox News. He said he is very seriously thinking about running for president as an independent. See here. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
According to this story, the Maine legislature is very likely to fix the constitutional flaw in the state’s public funding law for candidates, when the legislature convenes next year. The part of the public funding law that allows extra public funding for publicly funded candidates who have well-financed private opponents was held unconstitutional a few weeks ago. That part can be removed, without eliminating the entire program.