On February 25, Ireland held an election for lower house of the national Parliament. These elections use proportional representation, and single transferable vote. See this story for a basic description. Because it takes some time to count ranked-choice ballots, a few of the results are still to be determined, as of February 27. However, no one writing in the Irish press seems surprised or exasperated by this. See this February 27 story about the progress of the count.
Two Massachusetts representatives, James Dwyer (D-Woburn) and Bradley Jones (R-North Reading) have introduced HB 1972, to move the presidential primary from February to June. The bill also moves the primary for other office from September to June. The state would save money by holding only one primary instead of two.
The bill, if enacted, would not affect the deadline for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, to get on the ballot. That deadline would remain in July.
The idea of a Massachusetts presidential primary that late in the year is completely new to that state. Massachusetts has held a presidential primary in every presidential election year starting in 1912, and it has always been in February, March, or April. Thanks to Josh Putnam of Frontloading HQ for this news.
The Oklahoman has this story about bills in the Oklahoma legislature to move the primary from July to June. The story mentions that the filing deadline for individuals to file for the primary would move to April. However, the story does not mention that the bills also move the deadline for a party to qualify for the ballot from May 1 to March 1. The newspaper story title has a typo; obviously the newspaper meant to say “filing period”, not “failing period.”
Oklahoma legislators, and other Oklahomans who follow current affairs, seem unaware that early petition deadlines for new parties to qualify for the ballot are unconstitutional, especially when the state requires a very large number of signatures. In most states, newly-qualifying parties nominate by convention, not by primary, so states with early primaries are still able to have reasonable deadlines for parties to get on the ballot. Oklahoma is one of the states that insists that even newly-qualifying parties must nominate by primary.
On February 4, IndependentVoting.org filed a request with a U.S. District Court in South Carolina, asking that it be allowed to intervene in the lawsuit called Greenville County Republican Party Executive Committee, and South Carolina Republican Party, et al., v State of South Carolina, 6:10-cv-01407. Here is IndependentVoting’s memorandum. Here is IndependentVoting’s Motion, which includes affidavits by Jacqueline Salit, president of IndependentVoting, and Wayne Griffin, chair of the ballot-qualified Independence Party of South Carolina.
The Motion also includes unsigned statements by a South Carolina Democratic legislator, Joe Neal; by Allen Olson, chair of the Columbia Tea Party; by Brett Bursey, who was the Labor Party’s nominee for state house last year; and by Ted Adams, chair of the Constitution Party of South Carolina.
The lawsuit was filed last year by the Greenville County Republican Party and the South Carolina Republican Party. It argues that since parties in South Carolina must pay for their own primaries for municipal office (in cities that have partisan elections), the parties ought to be able to limit voting in those primaries to voters who are not “rivals” of the party. The Republicans also attack a state law that says that if a party convention chooses to nominate by convention, the motion must pass with a 3/4ths vote. South Carolina is one of the few states that lets all parties decide for themselves whether to nominate by primary or by convention, but the 3/4ths law makes it difficult for the major parties to ever opt out of a primary. The papers filed by IndependentVoting do not discuss the point that parties pay for their own municipal primaries. Also, IndependentVoting does not discuss the state law requiring a 3/4ths vote for a party to choose to nominate by convention. Thanks to Harry Kresky for copies of IndependentVoting’s legal papers. All of the state legislators mentioned as supporting IndependentVoting’s intervention are Democrats. Here is a Greenville News editorial opposing the lawsuit, although the editorial does not mention IndependentVoting’s request to intervene.
Here is the Republican Party’s complaint, filed last year.
The Egyptian Committee that has been suggesting new constitutional amendments has proposed changes in ballot access for presidential candidates. The suggestion is that a presidential candidate qualify for ballot access if he or she submits 30,000 signatures, with a certain number obtained from each of 15 provinces. Egypt has 29 provinces. Alternatively, a candidate can qualify if he or she is endorsed by at least 30 members of either house of the national legislature. A third method is that if a party has at least one member of the national parliament, it can place a presidential nominee on the ballot with no petition. See this story.
Egypt has an estimated population of 77,119,000.
