On March 5, the Washington state legislature gave final approval to HB 1860, which sets out procedures by which major parties can continue to elect Precinct Committee Officers. The old procedure had been held unconstitutional last year, on Freedom of Association grounds, because the old system provided that all voters at the general election participate in such internal party elections.

The new procedure puts these elections on the primary ballot. The primary ballot explains that anyone who votes in these elections is, by his or her vote, affiliating with the major party. Any voter who votes for both a Democratic candidate for Precinct Committee Officer, and a Republican candidate for Precinct Committee Officer, has cast an invalid vote that is not counted.

The bill is flawed because it assumes that the Democratic and Republican Parties will forever be qualified parties. It names those two particular parties. A better-drafted bill would not have done that. The last time a party other than the Democratic and Republican Parties met the state’s new definition of qualified party (one that polled at least 5% for President), was in 1996, when the Reform Party met that definition.

On March 5, a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court in Pittsburgh ruled that Jason Altmire, an incumbent member of Congress, may be on the Democratic primary ballot. His petition was challenged, partly because one of his circulators allegedly didn’t live in the district. The judge ruled that the circulator does live in the district. See this story. That ruling side-steps the constitutional issue of whether petitioners need to live in the district.

On March 5, the Georgia House passed HB 899, which contains all the Secretary of State’s election law recommendations except the provision lowering the number of signatures for minor party and independent candidates. The Macon newspaper story was correct. Representative Mark Hamilton was so resentful that one or two Georgia ballot access activists had been rude to him that he killed the provision lowering the number of signatures. The original bill, containing the Secretary of State’s recommendations, was HB 949, but all the contents of that bill, except the part lowering the number of signatures, were moved into HB 899, and that is the bill that passed the House today.