On February 24, the Arizona legislature voted down an amendment to a bill that would have let Pima County secede from Arizona and become the state of “Baja Arizona.” See this story.
The 8th circuit will hear oral arguments in Constitution Party of South Dakota v Nelson, 10-2910, on March 15 in Minneapolis, at 9 a.m. This is the case that challenges a South Dakota law that prohibits out-of-state circulators for candidate petitions, and also for initiative petitions. Oddly, the law does not prohibit out-of-state circulators to work on a petition to qualify a new party.
The lawsuit was filed in 2010. The Constitution Party was already ballot-qualified. But it needed experienced petitioners to complete the petition to get its gubernatorial candidate on its own primary ballot. The law required the candidate to get 250 signatures, and only registered party members could sign. The party only had about 320 registered members in the state. It is obviously extremely difficult to get the signatures of 250 people when there are only 320 eligible signers, especially in a state as physically large as South Dakota. Yet the state did not permit the party to hire out-of-state circulators, even though it would have been legal for out-of-state circulators to work on the petition to put the party on the ballot. As a result, the party couldn’t place its own gubernatorial nominee on its own primary ballot, and therefore it had no candidate on the November ballot. And because South Dakota requires a party to poll 2.5% for Governor, the party went off the ballot.
New York’s political parties will choose a nominee for U.S. House, 26th district, by committee meetings of party leaders. The Republican Party has already chosen its nominee. See this story. The Conservative Party might nominate someone different from the Republican Party’s nominee.
British voters are starting to see advertising on the May 5 referendum on whether to use Instant-Runoff Voting to elect members of the House of Commons. See this BBC story. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
A subcommittee of the North Carolina House Election Law and Campaign Finance Committee will take testimony about HB 32, on March 2, Wednesday. The hearing will be at 1 p.m. in room 643 of the Legislative Office Building. The subcommittee is not expected to act on the bill at that meeting, but to provide a means for the public and the subcommittee to exchange views and information. HB 32 is the bill that eases ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates.