According to this story, several Republican Party town organizations in Rhode Island are working together to collect signatures for all presidential candidates that the party recognizes. Candidates need 1,000 signatures, to be collected in two weeks in the winter. Any registered voter may sign, even though Rhode Island has registration by party. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
Petitioning in Virginia for minor party and independent candidates for President and both houses of Congress cannot begin until Virginia U.S. House boundaries are known. This is because statewide petitions have a distribution requirement; they need 400 signatures from each U.S. House district. Also, aside from that, presidential petitions cannot circulate before the districts are known because the petitions must carry the name of a presidential elector candidate who resides in each district.
The Virginia bills to redistrict the U.S. House seats are HB 251 and SB 455. The house bill passed the House on January 13, and both bills passed the Senate Committee that handles election law bills on January 17. However, the vote in the Senate Committee was 8-7. Democrats, who all opposed the bill, charge that the plan violates the Voting Rights Act. They also charge that because the Virginia Constitution says redistricting for U.S. House must be accomplished in the odd year after the census, any bill passed in the 2012 session of the legislature violates the State Constitution. See this story.
“Texas Redistricting”, the blog that has the most detailed information about the Texas redistricting saga, has posted this commentary, suggesting that the Texas primary will need to be postponed again, from April 3 to an undetermined later date. The primary was already moved once, from March 6.
Petitioning for independent candidates and unqualified parties cannot begin until the primary has been held. Furthermore, the deadline for independent presidential candidate petitions is May 14. The later that petition may begin to circulate, the less feasible this deadline remains.
On January 18, the Delaware bill for the National Popular Vote Plan was heard in the Senate Administrative Services/Election Committee. After hearing testimony on both sides, the Committee chair decided not to bring the bill up for a Committee vote. The bill had passed the House last year by a vote of 21-19. See this story. One of Delaware’s Republican National Committee members testified against the bill.
Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff will seek the Americans Elect presidential nomination, according to this story. He has been a professor of economics for 38 years, and was on President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisors.
His economic views can be ascertained from this August 2011 interview he gave on National Public Radio.
