Oregon will hold a special election to fill the vacant U.S. House seat, First District, on January 31, 2012. Democrats and Republicans will hold a primary on November 8, 2009, to choose their nominees. The ballot-qualified minor parties will nominate by convention. The First District includes the western part of the city of Portland, and its suburbs to the west. Thanks to Political Wire for this news.
Currently the only state with a ballot-qualified Moderate Party is Rhode Island. However, on July 25, the Moderate Party of California filed with the Secretary of State to be a “political body”. This means it intends to try to qualify as a party in California, and elections officials will tally how many people register into it. It needs 103,004 registered voters by January 2, 2012.
Kyle Curtis has a long story about the Working Families Party of Oregon, including an interview with a party leader. See it here. The story contains a factual error; it seems to think the Reform Party was created in 1992. Ross Perot was an independent candidate in 1992. The Reform Party was founded in 1995.
Supporters of election-day registration in Maine have turned in signatures to force a referendum on whether Maine should keep election-day registration. The town clerks must finish validating the petition by August 9. See this story.
Maine has had election-day registration for several decades, but this year’s legislature repealed it. Supporters of the program then began a referendum petition campaign to put the question on the ballot. Assuming the petition has enough valid signatures, election-day registration will stay in effect until the voters vote on it in 2012. Thanks to BallotBoxNews for this news.
Joe Mathews has this somewhat tongue-in-cheek and humorous column about how California could achieve real political reform, on the August 2 Fox and Hounds blog. Thanks to Rob Richie for the link.
