On Wednesday, May 5, the U.S. Senate Rules and Administration Committee will hear testimony about voting by mail. Scheduled to testify in person are: (1) U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon; (2) U.S. House member Susan Davis of California; (3) Kate Brown, Secretary of State of Oregon; (4) John Fortier of the American Enterprise Institute; (5) Rokey W. Suleman of the District of Columbia Board of Elections. The hearing is at 10 a.m. in the Committee’s normal hearing room, SR 301.

Professor Michael P. McDonald has submitted this written testimony. He is an expert on voter registration and voter turnout. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

According to this April 30 post on Arkansas Watch, the state chair of the Arkansas Republican Party said on the radio that he hopes a minor party gets on the ballot this year and runs someone for Attorney General.

Republicans failed to field anyone for Attorney General. The Democratic incumbent is Dustin McDaniel. It is now too late for an independent candidate to get on the Arkansas ballot, but it is not too late for a new party to get on the ballot. The Green Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Constitution Party, are all circulating their own petitions. They each need 10,000 signatures, and each party sets its own 90-day circulation period. However, any such petition must be submitted no later than June 30, 2010. The Green Party petition is due earlier than June 30, because the Green Party started earlier than March 30, 2010. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.

“Big Journalism” has this article on California’s Proposition 14, with an emphasis on how three big California newspapers, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, and the Sacramento Bee, have used misleading logic in their editorials supporting California’s “top-two” Proposition 14.

Andrew Breitbart founded Big Journalism in December 2009. Breitbart formerly worked for the Drudge Report and the Huffington Post. The article about Proposition 14 is by Thomas Del Beccaro.

Although the article does not mention any details about how the Chronicle, the Mercury News, and the Bee determined their support for Proposition 14, it should be noted that the Chronicle only invited proponents to speak to the editorial board, and did not invite opponents to come to speak. The Chronicle heard from Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado, and Jason Olson of Independent Voice, but no one on the other side. The San Jose Mercury News also did not invite opponents of Proposition 14 to speak to its editorial board. The Sacramento Bee, to its credit, did invite opponents of Proposition 14 to address its editorial board.