Georgia Won't Let Independent Gubernatorial Candidate Re-Design Petition Form

Posted on by May 11, 2010
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Ray Boyd is attempting to become the first independent candidate for Governor of Georgia since 1942. He needs a petition signed by 44,089 voters by July 13. Back in 1942, independent candidates didn’t need any signatures, but the law requiring a difficult petition was passed in 1943.

Boyd is now trying to put his petition form on the internet, so that his supporters can print it and begin using it. However, the Georgia petition form is a state form. It has place for 20 signatures, some on the front side and some on the back side. The back side also has a place for each sheet to be notarized. It is 8.5 inches by 14 inches.

Boyd recently asked the Secretary of State if he could redesign the petition form so that it is 8.5 inches by 11 inches, and is just a one-sided form. IF those changes were made, it would far easier for most home printers to print out the form. But on May 5, the Secretary of State said that Boyd cannot redesign the form. The Secretary of State also said that the Secretary himself cannot now redesign the form, because the change would need to be cleared by the Voting Rights Section of the U.S. Justice Department. Also the Secretary points out that other independent candidates may have been using the existing format already this year, and it would be impossible to change the form in the middle of the petitioning season.

British Conservative Party Offers Referendum on IRV, but not Proportional Representation

Posted on by May 11, 2010
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According to this Washington Post story by Dan Balz, the British Conservative Party has told the Liberal Democratic Party that if the Liberal Democrats support a Conservative government, that government will then allow a referendum on Instant Runoff Voting, which in Britain is usually called the Alternative Vote. But, the Conservatives aren’t willing to allow a referendum on proportional representation.

The link goes not to a standard news story, but to a series of questions and answers from readers of a Washington Post blog. One of the amusing parts is near the end, where a reader brings up a question of who the new leader of the Labor Party might be. The readers suggests it may be Ed Balls, and then the reader adds a parenthetical remark saying he has an “unfortunate name.” That is a rather odd comment to make when one is e-mailing with a reporter named Dan Balz.

KQED Radio Makes Maldonado-Winger Debate on Prop. 14 Available

Posted on by May 10, 2010
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On the morning of May 10, KQED (the National Public Radio Station in San Francisco) held an hour-long discussion of California’s Proposition 14. The host was Michael Krasny. The first 12 minutes consist of an interview with political scientist Eric McGhee. The remaining 48 minutes is the debate between California’s Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado, who sponsored the bill that put Proposition 14 on the ballot, and Richard Winger.

New Mexico Secretary of State Appoints a Green Party Member to Commisison on New Election Regulations

Posted on by May 10, 2010
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According to this news story, New Mexico Secretary of State Mary Herrera has appointed three members to a commission to plan new regulations for election procedures. One of the three is a Republican, one is a Democrat, and one is a Green.

The problem with New Mexico is not the election regulations, but the election law itself. Ironically, the New Mexico Green Party is not ballot-qualified, even though it had a candidate in a partisan election in November 2008 who carried two counties, Santa Fe and Los Alamos. That Green Party nominee polled 43.69% of the vote for Public Regulation Commission in a two-person race with a Democrat. The Green Party meets the registration test to be a major party, and it meets the vote test to be a major party. But it still isn’t recognized, because a major party can’t be recognized unless it also meets the definition of a political party, and that means a group whose presidential candidate polled at least one-half of 1% for President or Governor, whichever was most recent. A lawsuit against that aspect of the law is pending in U.S. District Court.