New Mexico Senate Passes Ballot Access Bill

Posted on by March 18, 2011
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On March 17, the New Mexico Senate passed SB 403 unanimously. It is an omnibus election law bill initiated by the organization of County Clerks, and contains a few ballot access improvements: (1) it moves the independent candidate petition deadline from early June to late June; (2) it lowers the number of signatures to qualify a new party in mid-term years, from one-half of 1% of the last presidential vote to one-half of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote; (3) it says that the blank petition forms for the petition to qualify a new party must be available at all times.

If the bill had been in effect in 2010, minor parties would have needed 2,796 signatures instead of 4,151 signatures. Even if this bill passes, New Mexico has other ballot access problems. The worst is that even after a minor party submits a petition to qualify itself, then it needs petition for each of its nominees (except presidential nominees). Also, the petition deadline for a new party petition is in April.

Another North Carolina Newspaper Asks Legislature to Pass Ballot Access Reform Bill

Posted on by March 18, 2011
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The Greensboro, North Carolina News & Record has this editorial in its March 18 edition. The editorial expresses disappointment with the recent North Carolina Supreme Court decision upholding the state’s ballot access law for minor parties. It hopes that the legislature will reform the law. North Carolina requires 85,379 signatures for a new party, or a statewide independent candidate, to get on the 2012 ballot. Also, parties cannot get on the ballot in any part of the state, unless they get on statewide. And, North Carolina is one of the few states that won’t let voters register into unqualified parties.

It is notable that many of the state’s leading newspapers have a better grasp of the facts than the majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court did. The majority said the 85,379 requirement is necessary to prevent “frivolous and fraudulent” candidates from getting on the ballot. But there were no such parties on the North Carolina ballot during the years 1929 through 1981, when the state only required 10,000 signatures for minor parties. The requirement was not raised in order to stop ballot clutter, as the record in the lawsuit showed. The requirement was raised because legislators were upset that the Socialist Workers Party had qualified for the ballot in 1980, the first time that a Marxist political party had ever appeared on a government-printed ballot in North Carolina. The Supreme Court ignored an overwhelming amount of evidence in the case.

Oklahoma House Passes Ballot Access Bill

Posted on by March 17, 2011
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On March 17, the Oklahoma House passed HB 1058 by a vote of 69-17. Now it goes to the Senate. It reduces the number of signatures to get a party on the ballot from 5% of the last vote cast, to exactly 22,500 signatures. Thanks to Angelia O’Dell for this news. The existing law required 73,134 signatures in 2010, and 51,739 in 2012.

If HB 1058 is signed into law, the only states in 2012 which will require more than 50,000 signatures to get a presidential candidate on the November ballot (by the easier method, independent or new party) will be California, Georgia, and North Carolina. Bills are pending in North Carolina to lower the North Carolina signature requirements, but they won’t be brought up in committee until April. No bills are pending in Georgia or California.

UPDATE: all of the “No” votes were Republicans, except that one Democrat, Mike Shelton, also voted “no.” One of the Republicans who voted “no” was Sue Tibbs, who had introduced HB 2654 in 2002 to lower the minor party petition down to 5,000 signatures, and also to ease the vote test for a party to remain on from 10% to 1%.

Wisconsin Recall Petitions Could be Challenged, Though Wisconsin Has Tolerant Laws for Petitioning

Posted on by March 17, 2011
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Politico has this story about possible legal challenges to the ongoing recall petitions against half of the State Senators in Wisconsin. As the piece notes, because Wisconsin has election-day registration, any adult citizen resident is free to sign a recall petition and have the petition be considered valid. Also Wisconsin does not have any laws setting up residency requirements for circulators. Nevertheless, the article assumes there will be legal challenges to the validity of some or all of the recall petitions. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

Maryland Democrats Sue Harford County to Obtain Representation on Redistricting Commission

Posted on by March 17, 2011
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On March 10, the Democratic Party of Harford County sued the county government, to obtain some seats on the Commission that will redistrict the county’s districts. See this story. The county charter says only parties that polled at least 15% of the vote in the last general election for County Council are entitled to seats on the Commission. The Democrats didn’t run any candidates in four county council districts, and ended up with only 11% of the total votes cast for all seats in the November 2010 election. However, if the vote for president of the county council is excluded, then the Democrats polled 21%.