Georgia Advisory Commission on Election Laws Recommends Ballot Access Improvements

Posted on by February 6, 2012
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On February 6, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s Elections Advisory Commission issued its ideas for improving election laws. The Report is here. The Report suggests lowering the number of signatures for minor party and independent candidate petitions somewhat. Existing law says statewide petitions need signatures of 1% of the number of registered voters, and district and county petitions need 5% of the number of registered voters. The Report suggests keeping the same percentages, but changing the base from the number of registered voters, to the number of votes cast in the last presidential election.

If that recommendation were in force now, Georgia would require 39,245 signatures for statewide office this year instead of 50,334 (for new parties) and 51,845 (for independent presidential candidates). For a U.S. House race, in the average district, the number of signatures would decline from 18,516 signatures to 14,016. This would leave Georgia with the second-highest requirements for U.S. House, and North Carolina would then be the most difficult for U.S. House.

The Report also recommends expanding the petition exception for incumbents who first won as an independent or minor party candidate. Currently, the law says independent or minor party incumbents who submitted the petition the first time they ran, and who got elected, don’t need to petition if they run for re-election. That kindly exception is no help for incumbents who first got elected as independent or minor party candidates in special elections. No candidate ever needs a petition in a special election. So, the law would be tweaked to include independent and minor party incumbents who first got elected in a special election. The legislature’s only independent incumbent, Rusty Kidd, would benefit this year if this change were made.

The Report also covers issues other than ballot access. It recommends letting incarcerated persons who have not yet been convicted receive absentee ballots, regardless of whether they are in jail in their home county or another county. Currently, the law only allows absentee ballots to be sent if the person is in jail in a county other than his or her home county. The Report recommends letting the absentee ballot be mailed, regardless of where the jail is. The ACLU has been suing Georgia over this anomaly. The Report also suggests deleting the requirement that party officers be elected in party primaries. The Report also suggests letting voters register on-line. Thanks to David Shock for the link.

Virginia House Narrowly Passes Bill to Allow Write-ins in Primaries

Posted on by February 6, 2012
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On February 3, the Virginia House passed HB 1132, the bill to allow write-ins in primaries, if the party holding the primary wants write-ins. The vote was 50-49.

Republican legislators were more supportive of the bill than Democratic legislators. Republicans supported it by a margin of 38-28. However, Democrats opposed it, with 11 “yes” votes but 21 “no” votes. The lone independent, Delegate Lacey Putney, voted in favor of write-ins.

Now the bill goes to the State Senate, where there are almost as many Democrats as Republicans. Virginia already allows write-ins in general elections, and the State Constitution requires write-in space on general election ballots. One wonders if the legislators who voted “no” on this bill would also like to eliminate write-ins in general elections. The mainstream Virginia press is not covering this bill. I could only find one news story about the bill, and it was written before the bill passed the House.

In 1984, the Democratic National Convention unanimously passed a resolution that said, “The Democratic Party of the United States recognizes the right to vote as the most fundamental of all rights in our democracy. And no duty of the Party is more important than protecting the sanctity of this right.” The right to vote is meaningless without the right of choice for whom to vote.

If this bill passes, it would not take effect in time for the March 6 presidential primary, in which only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are on the ballot, with no write-in space.

Ballot Access News Print Edition is in the Postal Mail to Subscribers

Posted on by February 5, 2012
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The February 1, 2012 Ballot Access News (paper edition) is finally in the postal mail to the subscribers. It was late because of problems finding a shop to print it. The normal printer was on vacation and his vacation got extended unexpectedly. The issue has the story about the February 3 ballot access victory in Tennessee, so in a sense it’s a more interesting issue because it is a little bit late. If it had been on time, it would have missed that story.

All Nationally-Organized Parties Have Fewer Registrations Now than in October 2010

Posted on by February 5, 2012
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Because most states purge their voter registration rolls between elections, the United States has fewer registered voters now than in October 2010. There are fewer Democrats now, fewer Republicans now, fewer independent voters now, and fewer voters in each nationally-organized minor party now. The nationally-organized parties that existed in 2010 and that have as many as 500 registrants in the nation are the Libertarian, Green, Constitution, Working Families, Reform, Socialist, and Socialist Workers Parties, in that order.

Americans Elect did not exist in 2010, and now has 3,285 registrants, so it is the only nationally-organized party that now has more registrants than in 2010.

UPDATE: an earlier version of this post said that Massachusetts had converted the state’s registered Libertarians to independents. The earlier version was mistaken about that. Massachusetts had 10,839 Libertarians registrants as of December 31, 2011. When that figure is added into the national Libertarian total, the Libertarians don’t have as many registrants nationally as they had had in October 2010, but they only declined by 390 nationwide.