On June 6, Joy Ballard, who was elected to a partisan county office in Saline County, Arkansas, as a Green Party nominee, announced she is switching to the Republican Party. See this story.
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On June 8, the New Hampshire legislature refused to pass SB 193, even though for a while it appeared that the bill would pass. It would have provided that the petition to qualify a new political party contain language telling potential signers that if they signed the petition, and if the petition succeeded in getting enough valid signatures, all the signers would automatically be converted to being registered members of that party.
Similar laws have been held unconstitutional in nine other states. Courts have stressed that voters have a right to support putting a party on the ballot without having to say that they are members, or that they themselves are organizing the new party, or that they should automatically be considered members. When these nine court precedents were pointed out to the bill’s sponsors, certain other legislators proposed that the bill be amended to say that the petition form should carry a checkbox, asking each signer if he or she wants to be treated as a member of that new party, but also making it clear that voters could sign the petition and yet not be forced into becoming a registered member of that party.
However, some influential members of the Election Law Committee then said that they were not interested in making the choice voluntary, and refused to amend the bill, so it died. Thanks to Representative Seth Cohn for this news. Cohn proposed making the bill voluntary instead of mandatory. He intends to introduce a superior bill in 2012, which will ease the petition burden. For 2012, the petition to create a new party requires 13,698 valid signatures. The procedure to create a new party has existed since 1996, and it is so difficult, it has only been used once, in 2000, by the Libertarian Party.
The Texas legislature passed SB 100 before adjourning. That action seemed to settle that the primary (for all office) will continue to be in March. Some versions of SB 100 had moved the primary to April, but the final version kept it in March. But it is still possible that the 2012 Texas primary will be in April. On May 31, Texas Governor Rick Perry called a special session of the legislature. There are still powerful legislators who want to move the primary to April, and it is possible the special session will take up the issue again. It is also conceivable that SB 100 will be vetoed, which would force the special session to deal with the primary date issue. SB 100 moves the date of the runoff primary to conform to federal law about sending overseas absentee ballots, and if SB 100 were vetoed, Texas would not be in compliance with the federal law and another attempt would be required.
Texas petition deadlines for independent candidates (for office other than President) and for unqualified parties are keyed to the date of the primary, so the primary date issue indirectly affects ballot access. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.
On June 7, the New York State Senate passed S709, which proposes a change to the New York State Constitution. It would create the initiative process in New York, for statewide laws, and also for local government. The vote was 47-15. All of the “no” votes were Democrats.
Now the bill goes to the Assembly. If it passes there, because it is a proposed constitutional change, it must pass both houses of the legislature again in 2013. Then the voters would decide in November 2014 whether to pass the idea.
The statewide initiative is a gateway for virtually any election law reform that has popular support. If New York state had the initiative process, the voters could probably qualify a proposed initiative for redistricting reform, or ballot access reform, or reform of the restrictive laws that don’t permit voters to switch parties before a primary unless they make the switch during the year before the election. It will be interesting to see if Independent Voting, formerly known as the Committee for a Unified Independent Party, and before that the New Alliance Party, will support S709. That group is very well organized in New York city. Virtually all the “no” votes in the Senate were New York city Senators.
The bill would require a statewide initiative to obtain a number of signatures equal to 5% of the last vote for Governor. Currently that number is 232,709. Thanks to Paul Jacob for this news.
On May 30, the Nevada legislature passed AB 81. It injures major political parties, new political parties, and independent voters. The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 11-10, with all Democrats voting “yes” and all Republicans voting “no.” Governor Brian Sandoval is a Republican and it is possible he will veto it.
The bill, one of the Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bills, deletes the easier method for new or previously unqualified parties to get on the ballot. Existing law gives groups two choices to get on the ballot: (1) a petition signed by 1% of the last US House vote throughout the state, which required 9,083 signatures for the 2010 election; or (2) a petition for each candidate of that party, which requires 250 signatures for a statewide nominee and 100 for a U.S. House nominee. The bill deletes the second, easier method. However, the bill does not affect presidential elections, because the old easy method does not apply to presidential nominees.
Oddly, the bill does not disturb the easy requirements for non-presidential independent candidates. They can still get on the ballot with 250 signatures, if running for statewide office, or 100 for U.S. House.
AB 81 also moves the petition deadline for new parties from May to April, even though in 1986 a U.S. District Court in Nevada struck down the old April petition deadline for new parties, in Libertarian Party of Nevada v Swackhamer, 638 F.Supp. 565.
AB 81 also tells parties that nominate by primary that they cannot invite independents to vote in their primary. Only the Democratic and Republican Parties nominate by primary in Nevada. They have not been letting independents vote in their primaries recently anyway, but previously, the law was silent on whether independents can vote in primaries. AB 81 bars a party from inviting independents to vote in its primary. That part of the bill would be unconstitutional under Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut, but only the Democratic and Republican Parties would have standing to bring a lawsuit against the restriction. In Nevada, smaller qualified parties nominate by convention. The only qualified minor parties currently in Nevada are the Independent American (Constitution) and Libertarian Parties. They, of course, are free to decide for themselves who votes at their state nominating conventions.
If you wish to ask Governor Brian Sandoval to veto the bill, his fax is 775-684-5683. His postal address is Capitol, 101 N. Carson St., Carson City Nv 89701.