On February 15, the South Dakota House Local Government Committee defeated HB 1158. It would have moved the independent candidate petition deadline from June to April. The bill did not attempt to amend the deadline for independent presidential candidates, which is in August.
The Maine Supreme Court has set a briefing schedule in Nader v Maine Democratic Party, et al, case no. washington-county-10-678. This is the tort lawsuit filed in 2009 in which Nader argues that the Democratic National Committee and its allies, in 2004, filed meritless challenges to his ballot access petitions, and engaged in dirty tricks against his circulators. Nader’s brief is due on April 8; the response is due May 27; and the rebuttal is due June 10. The central issue now is whether the lower court should have conducted a trial.
California Assemblymember Martin Block (D-Lemon Grove) has introduced AB 503. It says that write-in votes can be counted, even when the voter who cast the write-in vote didn’t know, or forgot, to fill in the oval or space next to the write-in line. These votes would be hand-counted, but only if the computer-counted votes showed that the write-in candidate might have won the election.
The legislature passed a similar bill in 2006, but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it. However, he is no longer Governor.
In other California legislative news, Assemblymember Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) has introduced AB 459, which makes insignificant grammar changes in section 5100 of the Elections Code, which defines “political party.” This is a “spot bill”, a bill that will be amended later to include something substantive. Hill’s office won’t say what the subject of the bill will be in the future, but that it does not relate to ballot access or to Proposition 14, the top-two system. The reason California legislators introduce “spot bills” is because the deadline for introducing bills is February 18 and sometimes legislators haven’t yet decided what bill they want to introduce.
On February 16, the Oklahoma House Rules Committee amended the ballot access bill, HB 1058, so that it requires a new or previously unqualified party to submit a petition of exactly 22,500 valid signatures. Then the Committee passed the amended bill, 14-0. It now goes to the House floor. Thanks to Angelia O’Dell for this news.
22,500 signatures is 2.17% of the last gubernatorial vote. If this passes, and if one compares the ballot access requirements of all 50 states, and compares the easier method for getting on the November ballot for President, Oklahoma would still have the most difficult requirement in the nation. Oklahoma would still be the only state with no procedure for President that is equal to, or easier than, 2% of the last gubernatorial vote. However, the bill represents a great improvement from the existing requirement of 5% of the last vote cast. Currently, for 2012, that is 51,739 signatures.
UPDATE: the Daily Oklahoman of February 17 has this news story about the bill. Read down a few paragraphs. Thanks to Micah Gamino for the link.
California State Senator Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) has introduced SB 304, to let San Diego County use all-mail voting for the next five years. At the 2000 census, San Diego County was California’s third-most populous county, and it is possible it is now the second-most populous county. Thanks to Voting News for this news.
