Political science professor Michael McDonald has this short article posted at pollster.com. He finds a relationship between periods when the major parties are ideologically cohesive, and periods of relative minor party success. Then he notes that we are in a period when the Democratic and Republican Parties are quite cohesive. Ergo, he predicts a good year for minor parties (and, presumably, independent candidates, although he doesn’t mention them specifically).
The Missouri legislature adjourns for the year later today. No interesting election law bills will have passed this year.
The bills to eliminate the typographical error in the 1993 ballot access reform bill, SB 796 and HB 2210, failed to make any headway. As a result, Missouri petitions to recognize a new ballot-qualified party continue to require the names of presidential candidates, and presidential elector candidates, if the group intends to run anyone for President. Otherwise, the petition to create a new party does not require the names of candidates.
Restrictive bills also failed to pass, including a bill to require voters at the polls to show government photo-ID, and a bill to double the number of signatures for an initiative, and a bill to ban paying circulators on a per-signature basis, and a bill to require petitioners to live in Missouri.
Congressman John Boehner, leader of Republicans in the U.S. House, told his caucus on May 12 that voters this year are angry at both major parties. See this Politico story. Thanks to ThirdPartyDaily for the link.
The article says Boehner made his remarks behind closed doors, so theoretically one of the Republican members of Congress must have leaked the story to Politico.
Former Republican congressman Joe Schwarz says he will meet with his advisors on Friday, May 14, to make a decision as to whether to run for Governor of Michigan as an independent. See this story.
If he decides to do so, he needs 30,000 valid signatures by July 15. Michigan has never had an independent candidate for Governor on the ballot. Michigan did not have statutory procedures for independent candidates until 1988.
On May 12, the Orange County (California) Register published this story about a lawsuit over whether one of the candidates for Secretary of State should be on the ballot. The lawsuit, filed by Pamela Barnett, a California voter, says that one of the Republicans running for Secretary of State should not have been put on the June primary ballot. Damon Dunn registered as a Democrat in the 1990’s in Florida, but he never voted there, and he was eventually classed as an inactive voter.
Dunn later moved to California and registered as a Republican. However, his California registration was less than one year before the filing deadline. California law says a voter only needs to have been registered in the party in which he or she is running for three months. But California law also says that regardless of the 3-month rule, a candidate can’t be on a partisan primary ballot if the candidate had been a registered member of another party during the year before filing. Also the California registration form asks, “If you were registered to vote before, answer these questions” and asks where the voter was registered previously. Dunn’s California registration form did not complete this portion of the form. Finally, the card says, above the signature block, “I declare that the information on this form is true and correct.”
The obvious rebuttal to the lawsuit is that it was filed far too late. Absentee voting started in California on May 10, and foreign absentee ballots were sent out in April. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
