West Virginia State Senator Clark Barnes (R-Beverly) has introduced SB 417, to ease the definition of “political party.” The existing law, ever since 1916, has defined a political party as a group that polled at least 1% of the vote for Governor in the last gubernatorial election. SB 417 would define “political party” as a group that either polled 1% for any statewide race at the last election, or which has registration of at least one-twentieth of 1%. That works out to 608 registered members. A companion bill will probably be introduced in the House soon, but its registration threshold will be exactly 1,000 registered members.

If either bill passed, the Libertarian Party would automatically be back on the ballot, since it has over 1,000 registered members. The Constitution Party, which did the work of getting the bill introduced, probably could get its registration up that high fairly quickly. The Green Party is already ballot-qualified in West Virginia, although its name is the Mountain Party. It also has over 1,000 registered members.

If the bill were enacted, it would relieve minor parties of the burden of always feeling they must run a gubernatorial candidate. Sometimes minor parties would rather save their resources for lower level offices, but when ballot access depends on a party’s polling a certain vote in one high-profile race, they have no choice but to run in such elections. Thanks to Jeff Becker for the news.

California’s county election officials are hoping that the state legislature will pass a bill, ending elections for political party officers. For almost a century, members of qualified political parties in California have chosen county central committee members, at the primary election. The Libertarian Party has opted out of such elections, but the other five qualified parties continue to use these elections to choose party officers. The Contra Costa Times has this article, airing the issue. The reason for abolishing these elections is to save money.

New Mexico Senator Eric Griego (D-Albuquerque) has introduced SB 93, which makes it possible for two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate. Also, the bill would let a party nominate anyone, regardless of how that candidate is registered.