Oklahoma voters are voting on November 2 on eleven statewide ballot measures.  One of them is State Question 750.  If it passes, it would lower the number of signatures to get an initiative on the ballot (for changing a state law, not the state Constitution)  from 117,013 signatures, to 74,117 signatures.  That represents a 36.7% reduction.  These figures relate to the 2010 ballot; of course no one knows the exact figures for future elections.  The measure would have no effect on the number of signatures for initiatives that qualify in presidential election years.

The legislature put this measure on the ballot in 2009.  Although SQ 750 would not directly alter the petition requirements for new parties or for independent presidential candidates, if it passes, it will help to improve the ballot access laws for minor parties and independent candidates.  The vote by the people will send a message to the Oklahoma legislature.  If SQ 750 passes, that will be a signal that the Oklahoma voters want more choices on their ballot.  If it fails, that will be a signal that they don’t.

The Oklahoma legislature almost passed a bill during 2009 lowering the number of signatures for new parties, but in the end the bill didn’t pass the conference committee.  The number of signatures needed for a new party in 2010 is 73,134 signatures.  If SQ 750 passes, the state would face the absurd situation that the number of signatures for a new party (in midterm years) is virtually the same as the number of signatures needed for an initiative.  The irony is that the U.S. Constitution requires every state to have procedures for minor parties to get on the ballot, but nothing in the U.S. Constitution requires states to have procedures for initiatives.  In all other states that have the initiative, the number of signatures for an initiative is far greater than the number of signatures to put a new party or an independent statewide candidate on the ballot.

The ballot wording for SQ 750 is here (scroll down).  Unfortunately the ballot description is very confusing.  SQ 750 changes the basis for determining the number of signatures for an initiative from 8% of the last vote cast, to 8% of the last gubernatorial vote cast.  The reduction (if SQ 750 passes) would apply to initiatives that appear in midterm years, such as 2010.

A recent poll (actually a combination of polls, each paid for by a different candidate) shows that Kathleen Curry is leading in her race to be re-elected to the Colorado State House of Representatives, district 61.  Curry is at 43%; Democratic nominee Roger Wilson is at 34%; Republican nominee Luke Korkowski is at 22%.

Curry is an independent candidate who has been forced to be a write-in candidate, because of a Colorado election law that has been repealed effective 2011.  The old law says no one can be on the ballot as an independent candidate if that person had been a member of a qualified political party during the year before filing.  Curry left the Democratic Party in December 2009 and became an independent.

If Curry wins, she will be the first person elected by write-ins at the general election to a state legislative seat since 2006, when a write-in candidate was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

Ever since the August 24 Democratic Party primary in Florida, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Kendrick Meek, has been running third in the polls, behind the Republican nominee and independent candidate Charlie Crist.  According to this Wall Street Journal story, leading Democrats may abandon the Meek campaign and instead organize support for Crist.  Thanks to ThirdPartyDaily for the link.