Earlier this year, the Ohio legislature passed a huge omnibus election law bill which contained provisions that Democrats and Democratic allies strongly oppose. The bill, HB 194, will be suspended until after 2012 if Democrats and their allies successfully collect 231,147 valid signatures on a referendum petition by September 29, 2011. See this story. The second-to-last paragraph says the referendum petition would repeal the contents of the entire bill.

Originally the Democratic referendum petition only proposed to repeal parts of HB 194. However, the referendum organizers have started over because their original proposal was flawed. For simplicity, the revised referendum petition repeals the entire bill. That means the parts of the bill that are responsible for eliminating the Constitution, Green, Libertarian and Socialist Parties would also be suspended if the petition succeeds.

Kentucky elects its statewide state offices in November of the odd years before presidential elections. This year, the Kentucky ballot will include one independent candidate for Governor, Gatewood Galbraith; and one Libertarian Party nominee for Treasurer, Ken Moellman. Each needed at least 5,000 valid signatures. Galbraith submitted 7,496; Moellman submitted 8,100. Both petitions have been approved.

This is the first time the Libertarian Party has ever been on the Kentucky ballot for a statewide office, in a non-presidential year. Neither the Green Party nor the Constitution Party has ever been on the statewide Kentucky ballot in a non-presidential year. There were no independent or minor party candidates on the Kentucky statewide ballot in 2007, nor in 2003.

All four states holding gubernatorial elections this year have at least one minor party or independent candidate on the ballot for Governor. The other states with gubernatorial elections this year are West Virginia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

On August 17, the California Assembly Appropriations Committee passed SB 205 by a party-line vote of 12-5. All Democrats voted “yes” and all Republicans voted “no.” The bill makes it illegal to pay registration workers on a per-registration card basis, “directly or indirectly.” The bill now goes to the Assembly floor.