On March 4, the Montana Senate State Administration Committee tabled SB 257, the bill that would have allowed two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate. Thanks to Mike Fellows for this news. The Committee members felt the bill would require some counties to purchase new kinds of vote-counting machines.
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.
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.
On March 7, the U.S. Supreme Court revealed the results of its March 4 conference. For the third conference in a row, the Court considered, but did not decide, whether to hear the two cases concerning the Illinois special U.S. Senate election. The cases are Burris v Judge, 10-367, and Quinn v Judge, 10-821. Presumably the Court will next consider whether to hear these cases at its next conference, which is on March 18.
Illinois Representative Mike Fortner (R-West Chicago) has introduced HB 2010. It changes ballot access for independent candidates, but not for the nominees of unqualified parties. The bill lowers the number of signatures for independent candidates, so that the number required matches what a candidate running in a partisan primary needs. For statewide office, the number of signatures would drop from 25,000 to 5,000.
However, the bill would also provide that independent candidate petitions are due 75 days after the primary. The 2012 Illinois primary is March 20, so if the bill passed, the independent candidate petition deadline would be June 3. Under current law, it is June 25. It is very likely the June 3 petition deadline would be declared unconstitutional as to independent presidential candidates. June petition deadlines for independent presidential candidates, or all independent candidates, have been declared too early in Alaska, Arizona, Kansas, Massachusetts, Nevada, and South Dakota.
HB 2010 also says no one may circulate an independent candidate petition earlier than primary day, and says no one who ran in a partisan primary for any office can then become an independent candidate, for any office, that same year. Thanks to Phil Huckelberry for this news.
