John DeStefano, Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut, plans to ask the legislature to pass a bill next year, letting non-citizen adult residents of New Haven vote elections for city office. See this story. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
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Independent Political Report says Gary Johnson will officially declare that he has become a registered Libertarian, and that he will seek the Libertarian Party presidential nomination, on December 15. See here. The report has already been picked up by Political Wire.
On December 14, Johnson, in a speech, mentioned that in 1995, Newt Gingrich introduced a bill providing for the death penalty for anyone who transported as little as eight ounces of an illegal drug (including marijuana) into the United States.
Also on December 14, some news reports said that the Michigan Secretary of State had refused to let Gary Johnson withdraw from the Republican presidential primary ballot, and that this might make it impossible for him to be the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee. The Michigan law does not interfere with the Libertarian Party’s right to nominate Gary Johnson in that state, even though his name remains on the Republican presidential primary ballot. The Michigan law covers independents, and clearly does not refer to presidential primary candidates, because it refers to candidates who applied for a place on a primary ballot by petition or filing fee. Johnson did not apply to be on the Michigan Republican primary ballot. He was listed automatically because he had been discussed in the news media earlier as someone seeking the Republican nomination. Michigan, like certain other states, lists presidential primary candidates automatically, without any input from them. The Secretary of State refused his request to withdraw because the withdrawal form forces the candidate to say he is not running for President.
The number of signatures needed for statewide minor party and independent candidates in Pennsylvania in 2012 will be known on Friday, December 16. The number of signatures will be 2% of the total vote cast for David Wecht, a candidate for Superior Court Justice in the November 8, 2011 election. As of December 14, the state elections office is finally in possession of official election returns from all of the 67 counties, and expects to add the numbers up over the next two days.
The number of signatures will probably be between 21,000 and 22,500.
Americans Elect submitted over 1,630,000 signatures earlier this year, to meet a requirement of 1,030,080 valid signatures. The California Secretary of State’s web page has this chart, showing which counties have finished checking the signatures. Los Angeles and San Diego, two of the most three populous counties, have now finished checking the petition. Only fifteen counties still haven’t finished. So far the petition-checking process shows a validity rate of 67.75%, and Americans Elect only needs to have 63.2% valid in order to succeed.
On December 14, the Ohio House Government & Elections Committee held a hearing on HB 391, a bill introduced on December 13, 2011, to hold the presidential primary, and the primary for all other office, on May 22, 2012. The bill is sponsored by Representative Matt Huffman, the Republican Floor Leader. Under current law, Ohio has a March primary for some partisan offices and a June primary for other partisan offices. HB 391 also provides that petitions to get on the primary ballot would be due 75 days before the primary, instead of the normal 90 day deadline.
The bill would save the taxpayers a great deal of money, and seems likely to pass. Thanks to Frontloading HQ for the news about the bill.
It is interesting that three of the most populous states in the United States, Texas, Ohio, and New York, still don’t know when they will be holding their 2012 congressional primaries. And even the presidential primary date is unsettled for Texas and Ohio.