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.
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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.
On April 14, the Missouri House Elections Committee added the provisions of HB 796 into an omnibus election law bill, SB 282, and passed the bill. Now the bill goes to the House floor. The Secretary of State supports the bill.
HB 796’s provisions repair a flaw in the state’s petition procedure for a new party to get on the ballot. In Missouri, as in most states, a previously unqualified party gets on the ballot by submitting a petition that does not carry the names of any candidates. If the petition is approved, then the party nominates its candidates. This is usually referred to as a “party petition”. Most states have procedures for a party petition, but some states do not.
The problem in Missouri is that the party petition law has a drafting error, which requires the petitioning party to list the candidate for president and presidential elector on the petition (if that party intends to nominate a presidential candidate), even though none of the group’s other nominees need to be listed. This was contrary to the intent of the law, but for almost 18 years, bills to fix this problem have failed to pass. Thanks to Ken Bush for this news.