On March 6, Public Policy Polling released a poll showing these results for the November 2012 Maine U.S. Senate race: Independent Angus King 36%, Democrat Chellie Pingree 31%, Republican Charlie Summers 28%, undecided or other 5%.

On the evening of March 5, King said that he will be an independent candidate for U.S. Senate this year. The poll was taken prior to that announcement. The poll’s assumption of who the Republican and Democratic nominees will be is just a guess, because the primary won’t be until June.

Angus King was elected Governor of Maine as an independent in 1994, and re-elected easily as an independent in 1998.

Utah state elections officials have determined that the Justice Party petition for ballot access has enough valid signatures. This is the first Justice Party petition drive that has succeeded. The Justice Party is also qualified in Mississippi, but Mississippi doesn’t require petitions for party ballot access, just organization.

The Justice Party’s Hawaii petition fell short, but the party is thinking about filing a lawsuit to overturn the February 23 petition deadline. In 1986, when the Hawaii petition deadline for new parties was 150 days before the primary, a U.S. District Court issued an injunction against that deadline on the grounds that it was unconstitutionally early. In the years since then, the Hawaii legislature moved the petition deadline even earlier, to 170 days before the primary.

Utah still hasn’t finished checking the Green Party petition.

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.