The California Republican Party is holding a state convention in Sacramento March 18-20. According to this news story, the party is likely to begin holding its own primary, at its own expense, beginning in 2014. The party would postally mail a ballot to all registered Republicans, in advance of the June government primary. The results would determine which Republican would be endorsed by the party, and the endorsed Republican candidates would be the beneficiary of party support at the polls in June and November.

The private primary ballot will cost a great deal to administer. However, apparently the party hopes that Republican registrants will respond to the mail ballot, not only with a vote, but with a donation to the party.

On Saturday, March 19, the New Mexico House passed SB 403, the omnibus election law bill sponsored by the organization of County Clerks. Among its many election law provisions, it improves the petition deadline for independent candidates by three weeks, and lowers the number of signatures for petitions to recognize minor parties in midterm years. The bill is now through the legislature. It passed unanimously in both houses. Much credit for the ballot access improvements goes to Alan Woodruff, who is a current member of the Green Party and who worked with the County Clerks. Also Daniel Ivey-Soto, Executive Director of the County Clerks organization, was very helpful.

On March 23, the Maine Joint Committee on State and Local Government will hear LD 545, the bill to ease the ballot access petition for candidates seeking to get on the primary ballot of a small qualified party. Current law requires a candidate for statewide office to submit 2,000 signatures of party members to get on that party’s primary ballot. The law doesn’t take into account how many registered voters any particular party has. This makes it almost impossible for a member of a small qualified party to get on his or her own party’s primary ballot.

The bill would provide that the number of signatures is the lesser of 2,000 signatures, or 2% of the number of registered voters in the party. Currently the bill only applies to gubernatorial candidates, but it will probably be amended to include U.S. Senate as well. Maine doesn’t have elections for any other statewide offices, and has no presidential primary.