Recall Petitions Launched Against Half of Wisconsin State Senators

Posted on by March 7, 2011
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This article says that recall petitions have been launched against sixteen Wisconsin State Senators, eight Republicans and eight Democrats. The recall petition needs the signatures of 25% of the number of people who voted in November 2010 within that district. The article says that this number ranges from 11,817 signatures in the district which had the fewest voters in 2010, to 20,973 in the district that had the most.

The November 2010 vote in Wisconsin for Governor was 2,158,974. It is estimated that Wisconsin has 4,200,000 people eligible to register to vote. Wisconsin has 33 State Senate districts, so the average district has 127,273 persons who are registered, or who could register. Thanks to Politico for the link.

Montana Hearing Set on "Faithless Presidential Electors" Bill

Posted on by March 7, 2011
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The Montana House State Administration Committee will hold a hearing on SB 194 on March 8. This is the bill, written by the Commission on Uniform State Laws, to provide that each party, and any independent presidential candidate, must submit twice as many candidates for presidential elector as that state has votes in the electoral college. Half would be designated presidential electors and half would be designated alternate presidential electors. If a presidential elector voted against his or her party’s nominee for President in the electoral college, that elector would be deemed to have resigned and the alternate would vote instead.

The Commission on Uniform State Laws also seems to have succeeded in getting this bill introduced in Indiana, Nebraska, and Washington, although none of the bills in those states have made any headway so far, except that the Nebraska bill has had a hearing. The Washington bill, HB 1950, is dead for this year.

Washington House Passes Bill Moving Election of Political Party Officers to Presidential Primary

Posted on by March 7, 2011
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On March 5, the Washington House passed HB 1860, which moves elections for Precinct Committee Officers from the general election to the presidential primary. Precinct Committee Officers are officers of the political parties.

The bill makes it likely, but not certain, that Washington state will continue to hold presidential primaries. The bill says a presidential primary will be held if “both” major parties tell the state no later than September 1 that they will choose all their delegates to national conventions via the presidential primary. If either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party insists on choosing some delegates by caucus, then the presidential primary is canceled for all parties.

It is interesting that the bill assumes that there will only be two qualified political parties into the indefinite future in Washington state. This assumption is because the bill refers to “both” the qualified parties. A qualified party in Washington state currently is one that polled at least 5% of the vote for President at the last presidential election.

Washington’s Secretary of State Sam Reed had proposed that the presidential primaries be eliminated, but the bills to do that did not advance.

Washington State Senate Passes Bill to Require All Counties to Use All-Mail Voting

Posted on by March 7, 2011
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On March 4, the Washington State Senate passed SB 5124 by a margin of 26-23. It mandates that all counties must use all-mail ballots. Pierce County, which includes Tacoma, had been the only county to still use voting at the polls. A similar bill last year passed the House but not the Senate. Because this idea passed the House last year, it is expected that the bill will pass the House again this year.