On April 27, the South Carolina Election Commission determined that Americans Elect has enough valid signatures on its petition, and it is now a ballot-qualified party. The state requires 10,000 signatures. Americans Elect can remain ballot-qualified in South Carolina as long as it continues to run at least one candidate every four years.
The District of Columbia Board of Elections has released all the write-in tallies for the April 3, 2012 Green Party presidential primary. It had already been known that Jill Stein won that primary, because Stein was the only name on that ballot, and her total (previously released) is 216, whereas all write-ins put together total only 164.
The Board’s breakdown shows that Roseanne Barr and President Obama each received 72 write-ins. No one else received more than 2 write-ins.
The Board says it does not intend to put these results on its web page, so historians of the future will probably overlook these returns. The Board does not publish any book that contains official election returns, so the only official evidence will be a piece of paper in the Board’s files.
On April 30, the Arizona legislature passed HB 2826, which requires that all local governments must hold all their elections in even-numbered years, either at the time of the August primary (for office other than President) or at the time of the November general election.
The bill had failed in the State Senate on April 4 by a vote of 11-17. However, the Senate had then decided to reconsider, and on April 19 the bill had passed by 16-13. It passed the House again on April 30 by 32-28. Opponents fear that the consequences will be a very crowded ballot in August of even-numbered years and November of even-numbered years. Proponents say that when localities hold odd-year elections at various times of the year, the turnout is often very low.
On April 30, the Connecticut House passed HB 5024, which makes it possible for unregistered individuals to register on election day. Here is the text of the bill. The vote was 83-59. Now the bill goes to the Senate. See this story, which says the House debated for five hours on this bill.
The leading opponent of the bill in the House debate said that this bill would make it possible for “some brat from Virginia” to vote twice for President, once in Virginia and once in Connecticut. But this was already possible and not necessarily illegal. Because the Electoral College system exists, and because early voting exists in so many states, it is possible and legal for individuals to vote for President in more than one state. If a voter is domiciled in one state, he may vote in that state’s selection process for presidential electors, by using early voting. Then, in theory at least, that voter might change domicile to another state, and he or she could then legally vote in that other state’s process for choosing presidential electors. Technically, the two elections are separate elections. In each election, the true candidates are candidates for presidential elector, and the election in one particular state over whom the electors should be for that state is a separate election from the other state’s choice of presidential electors. This is one of the flaws of the Electoral College system.
Thanks to Josh Van Vranken for this news.
The New York Times has this interview with Gary Johnson, on the eve of the Libertarian Party’s national convention, which starts May 3.
