On May 21, Maine Governor Paul LePage signed LD 1826, which eliminates the area of the state income tax form that asks taxpayers if they wish to send a small donation to the taxpayer’s favorite political party. Maine is the second state in recent years to eliminate this assistance to political parties. The other such state is Idaho.
A bill in Utah to do the same thing failed to pass this year.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has this article about the lawsuit filed law week by the Green Party and the Constitution Party, over Georgia’s ballot access restrictions for President. No statewide petition in Georgia, for president or any other office, has succeeded in Georgia since 2000. It is somewhat unusual for major newspapers to cover ballot access lawsuits when they are filed. Generally there is no publicity until and unless the lawsuit wins.
On June 1, Rasmussen Polls released partial results of a poll conducted on May 30-31, which included the question, “Does the current election system discourage third party challengers?” 63% of likely voters said “Yes”, and only 24% said “No.” The other 13% were undecided.
The same poll asked “Who should pay for the primary elections used to select Republican and Democratic candidates for office – the government or the political parties?”. It also asked “In many states, nominees of the Republican and Democratic Parties automatically get on the ballot. However, third party candidates often need to conduct petition drives and get thousands of signatures to get on the ballot. If third party candidates need to submit signatures to get on the ballot, should Republicans and Democrats have to do the same?”
However, the results of the latter two questions are not public; one must be a Rasmussen subscriber to see those results. Thanks to Eric O’Keefe for this news.
The North Carolina ballot access improvement bill, HB 32, could pass the Senate this month if two conditions are met. The bill passed the House last year. If a majority of the House Republican Caucus agrees that the bill should get a vote in the Senate, and if a majority of Senators on the Senate Judiciary say they support the bill, then the Senate President, Senator Phil Berger, will bring up the bill in the Senate. Thanks to Jordon Greene for this news.
Currently North Carolina requires more signatures to get on the ballot for President than any other state except California.
SurveyUSA has polled the U.S. Senate race in California, and has included all 24 candidates in its poll. See the results here. Incumbent Democrat Dianne Feinstein has 42%, and no one else has more than 4%. 24% are undecided. Even though SurveyUSA is to be commended for doing such an inclusive poll, one wonders whether it is possible to do an accurate poll for a race like this, in which 19 candidates are at or below 2%. The margin of error is a problem in a race like this, as well as the fact that the poll was done using telephones. When there are that many candidates, a face-to-face poll in which the respondent sees the list works better.
