The Hawaii bill to use Instant Runoff Voting in special elections, HB 638, will not pass this year, even though it had passed both houses. On the evening of April 28, the conference committee tabled the bill. The committee expressed concerns about the difficulty of re-programming the vote-counting machines.
On May 2, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Siefert v Alexander, 10-405. This lawsuit attacked Wisconsin’s ban on judges making public endorsements of candidates for partisan office. The 7th circuit had upheld that ban 2-1. Wisconsin does not prevent judges from endorsing candidates in non-partisan elections, but does prevent them from endorsing candidates in partisan elections. The plaintiff, a Democrat, had wanted to publicly endorse Barack Obama in 2008 and had also wanted to endorse various Democrats in 2010.
The case also involves Wisconsin’s ban on judges asking personally for campaign contributions. Wisconsin elects its state court judges in non-partisan elections. The 7th circuit had unanimously upheld that Wisconsin restriction.
Canada votes for Parliament on May 2. According to this story, early voting is substantially higher for this election than it was for Canada’s last parliamentary election. The story also says that the New Democratic Party is polling higher than the Liberal Party. Although the New Democratic Party has won control of certain provincial governments in the past, it is still considered to be a “third party”, behind the two major parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives. The New Democratic Party has never won as many seats in Parliament as either of the two major parties.
On April 28, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed SB 1402, which adds ten new categories of specialized license plates, including a “Don’t Tread on Me” plate that will raise money for an Arizona Tea Party Committee (see section 28-2439.01 of the bill). Groups that wish to profit by any of these specialized license plates take some risk, however. They must pay $32,000 to the state to start the process. Then the state manufactures and sells the license plate for $25, and the sponsoring group receives $18 for each plate sold. Obviously, if the plate is unpopular, the sponsoring groups may lose money.
The part of the law concerning the Tea Party says that the Tea Party Committee’s mission is to bring together, empower, and train tea party groups, to work for these goals: (1) promoting the Constitution; (2) promoting limited government; (3) protecting state sovereignty; (4) standing for the security of borders with other nations. Thanks to Ken Bush for this news.
Americans Elect’s web page has this article, explaining why it is circulating a petition to qualify as a party in California, instead of using the easier registration method. California lets a new party qualify if it has registration equal to 1% of the last gubernatorial vote, or if it submits a petition signed by a number of voters equal to 10% of the last gubernatorial vote. Americans Elect is using the latter method.
Courts have unanimously invalidated ballot access petition requirements for new parties and independent candidates that exceed 5% of the number of registered voters. The California 10% petition has never been invalidated, however, because it is not mandatory. Groups are free to use the 1% registration method. The 10% petition method has been in the law since 1937 and it has only been used once, in the autumn of 1947 and the spring of 1948, by the Independent Progressive Party that ran Henry Wallace for President in 1948 (Wallace was a former vice-president of the United States). By contrast, since 1937, every other party that qualified in California has used the alternate 1% registration method. The newly-qualifying parties that used the 1% registration method are the Townsend Party in 1938, the American Independent Party in 1967, the Peace & Freedom Party in 1967, the Libertarian Party in 1979, the Green Party in 1991, the Natural Law Party in 1995, and the Reform Party in 1995.
Before 1937, groups could qualify as a party in California with a 1% petition.
