On September 13, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (which is the name of the body formerly called the State Board of Elections) approved letting petitions be e-mailed to individuals who ask for them. Furthermore, the organization promoting the petition would be permitted to electronically add the requester’s postal address to the blank petition. Then, the voter could print out the petition form at home, sign it, and mail it in to the proponents. See this story. The vote was 5-1.

However, on September 27, a legislative committee held a hearing on the Board’s new policy, and a majority of legislators seemed to feel the Board should not take this action on its own, but should submit the idea to a higher government body that includes the Governor. If that happens, chances are that the policy will be vetoed, because the new policy makes it easier to recall the Governor. See this story. Thanks to Political Wire for the latter link.

Wisconsin does not have the initiative process.

This story says it is virtually certain that the Democratic Party of Burlington County, New Jersey, won’t replace Carl Lewis with a new nominee for State Senate in the 8th district, in the election of November 8, 2011. It is very common in most states for the two major parties to fail to nominate anyone for many legislative seats However, it is rare in New Jersey for either major party to ever fail to run someone for a legislative race. The 8th district will be the only State Senate race in New Jersey this year without nominees from both major parties. In the 8th district, the Republican nominee will be the only name on the ballot.

Lewis, a former Olympic star, is off the ballot because he didn’t meet the duration of residency requirement, and because his lawsuit to overturn that requirement did not win.

New York state is trying to persuade the federal government to give it a waiver of the 2009 law that tells all states they must send overseas absentee ballots no later than 45 days before any federal primary or federal general election. See this letter, sent by the state on September 21.

New York holds its non-presidential primary in September, and the state wants to continue that policy in 2012. The state promises to move the primary date to an earlier month, starting in 2013. Thanks to the Election Law Center for the link.