This news story says the South Dakota Elections Board, or some members, apparently want to get a bill introduced in 2012 to make it illegal for ex-felons to circulate petitions. This detail is near the end of the article. The article suggests that Secretary of State Jason Gant is not in favor of this idea, or at least that he isn’t ready to support that idea yet.
Michael Benjamin, a New York Post columnist, urges that the New York legislature be called into special session in December to work on the problem that the state’s non-presidential September primary must be changed to an earlier date, due to the federal law on overseas absentees ballots.
The hearing in U.S. District Court in the federal government’s lawsuit against New York on this point has been postponed once again, from December 1 to December 12. This is the fourth postponement. It seems somewhat likely that the judge is hoping the legislature will act before he must choose a new primary date. The case is USA v State of New York, northern district, 10-cv-1214. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
On November 29, Rocky Anderson, former Mayor of Salt Lake City, and a man of many other accomplishments, said he will attempt to form a new political party and to seek that party’s nomination. Here is the wikipedia article on Anderson. The new party will probably be called the Justice Party, and will take political positions that will probably appeal more to Democrats and progressives than to other kinds of voters. See this story about Anderson’s announcement.
Anderson has been a close friend of Mitt Romney, according to this news story from earlier in the month. UPDATE: here is another story.
This story reveals that some important Massachusetts Democratic politicians are unhappy that the legislature recently passed a bill moving the 2012 non-presidential primary to September 6. September 6 is also the last day of the national Democratic convention.
The Lewiston Tribune has this article, explaining that Idaho election officials will have a difficult job deciding how many Republican primary ballots to print in 2012. Before 2011 Idaho did not ask voters to choose a party on voter registration forms. In 2011 the law changed, so that in 2014 and years even further in the future, voters will have chosen a party on voter registration forms or at the polls on primary day in 2012. So, for 2014 and years beyond, election officials will know how approximately many primary ballots to print for each party. But 2012 is a special problem, because the registration by party system is still being phased in.
In 2010 and earlier years, election officials printed up one primary ballot for all voters. Voters, in the secrecy of the voting booth, decided which party’s primary to vote in. Even though all party primary ballots were on the same piece of paper, a voter could only vote in one party’s area of that ballot. Thanks to Mike Fellows for the link.
