On February 4, the North Dakota House Political Subdivisions Committee defeated HB 1299. The bill would have converted North Dakota from an open primary to a blanket primary. A blanket primary puts all candidates on a single ballot, and all primary voters use that ballot. Then, the top vote-getter from the ranks of each party advances to the general election. The bill had been sponsored by two Democratic legislators, Corey Mock and Lee Kaldor.
South Carolina Representative Garry R. Smith (R-Simpsonville) has introduced HB 3110. It says that no one may vote in a party primary unless the person signs an affidavit saying he or she is a member of the party. Once a voter had signed such an affidavit, the voter would be deemed to continue to be a member of the same party, until he or she signed another form retracting it. Voters could not switch within 30 days of a primary.
The bill does not include presidential primaries, and if passed, would go into effect in time for the congressional primary of June 2012. Currently South Carolina has open primaries. Any voter, on primary day, can decide which party’s primary ballot to use. The Greenville County Republican Party has a pending lawsuit in U.S. District Court, in which the party seeks to implement such a procedure even in the absence of any state law on the subject. That case is The Greenville County Republican Party Executive Committee v State of South Carolina, 6:10-cv-1407.
Last month, fifteen South Dakota Representatives, and six State Senators, introduced HB 1158, to move the independent candidate petition deadline (for office other than President) from early June to late April. South Dakota’s primary is in June.
The same bill had been introduced in 2009. It was HB 1234, and it had passed the House 52-17, but it was defeated in the Senate State Affairs Committee after then-Secretary of State Chris Nelson testified that if the bill were passed, it would probably be declared unconstitutional. Unfortunately, Chris Nelson did not run for re-election in 2010, and it is not known if the new Secretary of State will take a position similar to that taken by Nelson in 2009. The bill in 2009 had even more co-sponsors: seventeen in the House and eight in the Senate.
Courts in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, have all ruled that independent candidate petitions deadlines in advance of partisan primaries (except one day in advance) are unconstitutional. In 2000, a U.S. District Court ruled that South Dakota’s June petition deadline for independent presidential candidates was unconstitutional, and the legislature moved the presidential independent deadline to August. The bill does not propose to move the independent presidential deadline.
In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which requires that all election law changes in part or all of certain states must be pre-cleared by the Voting Rights Section of the U.S. Justice Department. Alternatively, if the Voting Rights Section refuses to approve the change, the jurisdiction is free to ask a U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to approve the change. Covered states, counties, and localities are also given an opportunity to opt out of the coverage requirement, but the procedure to do that is very difficult. Currently, part or all of 16 states must comply with the pre-clearance part of the Act.
On February 2, 2011, a U.S. District Court Judge in Washington, D.C., heard oral arguments in the latest lawsuit by a covered entity to find the pre-clearance of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional. See this story. The lawsuit was filed by Shelby County, Alabama, on April 27, 2010, and is called Shelby County, Alabama v Holder, 1:10-cv-651. Although this part of the Voting Rights Act has been upheld several times by the U.S. Supreme Court, this latest lawsuit focuses on the point that when Congress extended the Act in 2006 for another twenty-five years, Congress relied on data from the 1964, 1968, and 1972 elections, to determine which areas ought to be covered by the Act. The county argues the formula is out-of-date. Shelby County, a suburban county south of Birmingham, is largely white and very Republican. In November 2008, Barack Obama got 22.8% of the vote in Shelby County.
Maine Representative Tyler Clark (R-Easton) has introduced LD 120, to end public funding for gubernatorial candidates. The bill would retain public funding for candidates for the legislature.
