The March 18 issue of the Beaufort Observer has this op-ed, criticizing North Carolina’s ballot access laws. The op-ed is by Daven Bakst of the John Locke Foundation. Press commentary in North Carolina has been unanimously critical of the March 11 decision of the State Supreme Court, upholding the state’s ballot access laws.
On Saturday, March 19, the New Mexico House passed SB 403, the omnibus election law bill sponsored by the organization of County Clerks. Among its many election law provisions, it improves the petition deadline for independent candidates by three weeks, and lowers the number of signatures for petitions to recognize minor parties in midterm years. The bill is now through the legislature. It passed unanimously in both houses. Much credit for the ballot access improvements goes to Alan Woodruff, who is a current member of the Green Party and who worked with the County Clerks. Also Daniel Ivey-Soto, Executive Director of the County Clerks organization, was very helpful.
On March 22, Tuesday, the Nevada Senate Legislative Operations & Elections Committee will hear testimony on SB 133 and SB 241. Both bills require strict distribution requirements for statewide initiatives. SB 133 would require that an initiative petition contain signatures of 10% of the last vote cast in each of the state’s 42 Assembly districts. SB 241 would require an initiative petition to contain the signatures of 10% of the last vote cast in each of the thirteen University of Nevada Regents districts.
Currently, initiative petitions in Nevada need signatures from 10% of the last vote cast in each of the three U.S. House districts.
Both bills are sponsored by Senator Dean Rhoads (R-Tuscarora).
On March 23, the Maine Joint Committee on State and Local Government will hear LD 545, the bill to ease the ballot access petition for candidates seeking to get on the primary ballot of a small qualified party. Current law requires a candidate for statewide office to submit 2,000 signatures of party members to get on that party’s primary ballot. The law doesn’t take into account how many registered voters any particular party has. This makes it almost impossible for a member of a small qualified party to get on his or her own party’s primary ballot.
The bill would provide that the number of signatures is the lesser of 2,000 signatures, or 2% of the number of registered voters in the party. Currently the bill only applies to gubernatorial candidates, but it will probably be amended to include U.S. Senate as well. Maine doesn’t have elections for any other statewide offices, and has no presidential primary.
Delaware has always permitted fusion, the ability of two different political parties to jointly nominate the same person. A bill to abolish fusion was passed by the Delaware House in January 2011. That bill, HB 11, will be heard in the Senate Administrative Services & Elections Committee during the week of March 21-25. The exact date hasn’t been set yet.
The bill is worded very broadly. It makes it illegal for a party to nominate a non-member. That prohibition is so broad, it seems to run afoul of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut, which said that if a state ever told a political party that it couldn’t nominate a non-member, that prohibition would violate the party’s associational rights.
Several minor political parties in Delaware are working against the bill.
