California SB 1140 passed the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 27. It had passed the Senate Elections Committee on April 7. The bill will now move to the Senate floor. It makes it possible for unregistered voters to register on election day. Thanks to Calitics for this news.

The bill would not permit an unregistered voter to register at his or her neighborhood polling place. Instead, the unregistered voter would need to travel to the county’s elections office, or a satellite elections office. It would take effect in 2012.

The bill also pertains to a voter who is already registered, but wishes to change his or her party registration on primary election day. This aspect of the bill moves California closer to being a classic open primary state. A classic open primary is one in which a voter is free, on primary election day, to decide which party’s primary to vote in. However, the impact would be limited because of the bill’s requirement that the voter travel to a county elections office on election day, to register or re-register.

The largest National Public Radio station in Los Angeles, KPCC, has now posted today’s debate on California’s Proposition 14, the top-two ballot measure. Listen to it here. Attorney David Fleming advocated Proposition 14 and Mike Feinstein, former Green Party Mayor of Santa Monica, opposed it.

Fleming said that Common Cause has endorsed Proposition 14, but that is not true. Common Cause, like the California League of Women Voters, is neutral. Fleming also said that all large newspapers in California support Proposition 14, but the Orange County Register and several medium-sized daily newspapers oppose it.

On May 25, the Colorado legislature sent HB 1271 to the Governor. He has 30 days from that day to either sign or veto the bill. The bill eases ballot access for independent candidates. Currently no one may be an independent candidate (except for President) if the person was registered as a member of a qualified party for a year before filing. The bill makes that law less restrictive, and only looks at the independent candidate’s registration history back to January 1 of the election year.