On January 7, the Kentucky Senate passed SB 4 by a vote of 21-14. It makes it illegal for lobbyists to donate to candidates, and it moves the Kentucky primary (including the presidential primary) from late May to early August. The chief motivation for the bill, according to its author, State Senator Jared Carpenter (R-Berea) is that legislators typically refuse to vote on controversial bills until they know who is running against them. With the primary in May, candidates file for the primary at the end of January. Carpenter says the legislature thus wastes a lot time during January, waiting to see who will run against them in primaries. Therefore, by moving the primary to August, the entire legislative session will have been held before any legislator knows who might run against him or her.

The part of the bill that moves the presidential primary to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in August almost seems like an afterthought in the bill. The idea of holding a presidential primary in early August is not irrational, now that the major parties hold such late national conventions. In 2012, the Democratic convention will be in the first week in September, and the Republican convention is only slightly earlier. However, the national party rules do not recognize presidential primaries held later than the first week in June, although there seems to be no reason for this rule.

Hawaii State Senators Les Ihara (D-Honolulu) and Maile Shimabukuro (D-Waianae) have introduced SB 205, to add write-in space on all Hawaii ballots. Currently, Hawaii is one of five states with a complete ban on write-ins. The bill has a preamble which says “The legislature finds that Hawaii has one of the lowest voter participation records in the United States…Eligible voters are often not interested in voting for the available candidates and refrain from voting at all. Write-in voting would allow voters greater freedom to support candidates of their choice and signify their displeasure with the available candidates. The legislature believes that the authorization of write-in voting would increase the number of registered voters that actually vote in each election.”

Senator Ihara has been in the legislature since 1994 and has introduced write-in bills in the past.