Indiana Bill Would Require Five Years Residence in State Before Running for Congress

Posted on by January 24, 2012
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Indiana State Senator Mike Delph (R-Carmel) has introduced SB 405, which requires candidates for Congress to have lived in Indiana at least five years before the election year. Article One of the U.S. Constitution sets forth the requirements for membership in Congress, and the only reference to residency is that an individual live in the state “when elected.” Under U.S. Term Limits v Thornton, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down term limits for members of Congress, the bill would be unconstitutional.

Pennsylvania Libertarian Registration at an All-Time High Even Though it is Not Listed on Voter Registration Form

Posted on by January 24, 2012
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The Pennsylvania Department of Elections says that as of January 20, 2012, there are 38,220 registered Libertarians in Pennsylvania. This is the highest number of registered Libertarians in Pennsylvania history, and is doubly surprising because the state removed the party as a choice on the voter registration formseveral years ago, because it had lost its status as a “political party.” Not only that, it didn’t even appear on the statewide ballot in 2010, because its statewide petition was challenged and the party then withdrew that petition to avoid court costs of $110,000. For the past few years, voters who want to register in the Libertarian Party have had to check the “other” box and write in “Libertarian.”

The number of registered Libertarians in past tallies in Pennsylvania has been (each date is of October): 1994 4,408; 1996 14,435; 1998 23,095; 2000 30,248; 2002 not available; 2004 34,003; 2006 36,070; 2008 36,509; 2010 38,035.

Virginia Bill to Move 2016 Non-Presidential Primary from June to March Makes Headway

Posted on by January 23, 2012
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On January 23, a subcommittee in the Virginia House passed HB 55, which would move the 2016 primary for office other than President from June to March. This would enable the state to save money by having a single primary, instead of two primaries. However, it would force minor party and independent candidates (for office other than President) to file their petitions by March instead of by June.

In other Virginia legislative news, the bills to provide write-in space in primaries have not made any headway. Also, one of the bills to establish registration by party (HB 1051), and to let parties close their primaries, was tabled on January 23. However, other bills to do the same thing are still pending.

New Bills Introduced in Virginia to Cope with Problem that U.S. House District Boundaries Are Still Unknown

Posted on by January 23, 2012
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On January 20, the Virginia legislature passed HB 251, which draws new boundaries for U.S. House districts. However, the bill cannot go into effect until the Governor signs it, and until the U.S. Justice Department approves it, which could take months.

Petitioning in Virginia cannot proceed for President, or U.S. Senator, until the U.S. House districts are known. This is because statewide petitions, both for the primary and the general election, have a distribution requirement, and must carry the signatures of 400 voters in each U.S. House district. Also, general election presidential petitions must include the name of the candidates for elector, and one elector must live in each district.

HB 736 has been introduced, to move the Virginia non-presidential primary from June 12 to August 21, in response to the fear that district boundaries won’t be known for a while. Also, HB 1151 has been introduced, to provide that U.S. Senate petitions can circulate using the old districts. However, neither of these bills offers any relief for minor party and independent presidential candidates. Although the law says presidential petitions can start to circulate on January 1, in reality, they can’t start to circulate yet. It is surprising that the legislator who introduced HB 1151 didn’t include presidential petitions in his bill. See this story about the two bills.

California Secretary of State Says Qualified Parties Are Free to Avoid a Presidential Primary if they Wish

Posted on by January 23, 2012
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On January 23, the California Secretary of State ruled that if Americans Elect doesn’t want a presidential primary ballot prepared for it in California, the Secretary will accept that decision. Americans Elect had already told California that it prefers not to have a government presidential primary prepared for itself. This decision will save taxpayer dollars, because printing up primary ballots for Americans Elect would probably have cost $2,000,000. Here is the ruling.

Americans Elect also decided not to have county central committee elections. The California election law already made it clear that parties are free to decline county central committee elections for themselves if they wish. The Libertarian Party also doesn’t elect county central committee members.

All qualified parties in California are expected to choose one of four types of party organization plan that are in the election code. Americans Elect chose the Peace & Freedom Party code section. This is the same code section that all California qualified minor parties have chosen during the last 35 years. The other code sections in the election law are titled, “Republican”, “Democratic”, and “American Independent.”