Georgia Elections Advisory Council Expected to Recommend 25% Reduction in Number of Ballot Access Signatures

Posted on by December 6, 2011
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Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp appointed an Elections Advisory Council on January 27, 2011. Sometime during December, the Council expects to release its recommendations for improvements in the Georgia election laws. The final recommendation will probably be to retain the 1% statewide petition requirement, and the 5% district petition requirement. However, the recommendation will be that the percentages be based on the last presidential vote, instead of the number of registered voters.

This would cut the number of signatures for statewide petitions from 51,845 signatures to 39,245, and cut the number of signatures for U.S. House from approximately 20,000, to approximately 15,000. UPDATE: it is always possible the final recommendations will be more favorable. Activists in Georgia are working for a better recommendation.

Lubbock County, Texas Government Attorney Says Texas Primary May be in May Instead of March

Posted on by December 5, 2011
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According to this story, the Lubbock County government attorney recently advised the county elections officials that the redistricting lawsuit currently pending may cause Texas to hold its 2012 primary in May instead of March. This would put the petition deadline for new political parties, and for non-presidential independent candidates, into July. Texas law ties the date of the primary to those petition deadlines. Oddly, however, the petition deadline for independent presidential candidates is not tied to the primary date, and would remain in early May. But because Texas won’t let minor party and independent candidates circulate petitions until after the primary is over, obviously the independent presidential deadline would need to be changed as well, or otherwise the law would only give one week for the circulation of an independent presidential candidate petition.

The last time Texas held its primary in May in a presidential year was in 1984. Ever since 1988 it has been in March.

Wisconsin Newspaper Feature Story About One Particular Voter Shows Problems with Photo-ID Laws

Posted on by December 4, 2011
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The Wausau Daily Herald has this compelling feature story about Ruthelle Frank, an 84-year old in Brokaw, Wisconsin, who is a local public official and someone who will not be able to vote due to the state’s new law requiring voters to show a government photo-ID, unless she spends hundreds of dollars. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.