On April 14, the Vermont House passed SB 31 on second reading. This is the National Popular Vote Plan bill. It had passed the Senate on February 23. It will probably pass the House on third reading Friday or Monday. See this story. UPDATE: on August 15, the bill passed the House on third reading, 85-44.
The Tennessee Senate had been scheduled to vote on SB 935 on April 14. This is the bill that changes ballot access for new and minor parties. However, the vote has been postponed until April 28.
On April 13, Idaho Governor Butch Otter signed HB 351, which lets each party decide for itself which voters may vote in its primary. It is expected that the Democratic, Constitution, and Libertarian Parties will continue to let all voters vote in their primaries. Generally the two qualified minor parties don’t have contested primaries anyway, and when there are no contests, the state doesn’t print up primary ballots.
It is also expected, but not certain, that the Republican Party will provide that only registered Republicans may vote in the Republican primary. For the 2012 primary, voters can choose to register into a party at the polls. But in later years, voters will need to have joined a party (that has chosen a closed primary for itself) several months before the primary.
On April 13, the Oregon House Rules Committee held a hearing on HB 2442, the bill to tell the Independent Party (which has been ballot-qualified starting in 2006) that it must choose a new name. No one testified in favor of the bill, and there was a great deal of opposition. See this story from the Hankster.
On April 13, the Alaska House passed SB 31, the bill that confirms that write-in votes are not necessarily invalid just because the voter misspelled the candidate’s name. The bill had already passed the Senate. The bill does not actually change policy, because last year Alaska state courts interpreted the old law to encompass this policy. However, the bill makes the law clearer.
