Washington state currently lets each county decide whether to use all-mail ballots, or whether to maintain old-fashioned polling places. However, every county in the state except Pierce County now uses only mail ballots. On February 15, the Washington House passed Second Substitute HB 1572, which eliminates county choice, and forces all counties to use only mail ballots. The bill now goes to the Senate.
Frederic von Anholt says he will file paperwork on February 18 with the California Secretary of State, in preparation for for his independent candidacy for Governor. The petitioning period does not begin until April and runs through August. He will need 173,041 valid signatures, due August 6. See this story.
As noted earlier, if he qualifies, he will be California’s first independent candidate for Governor to have his name printed on a government-printed ballot. Although two gubernatorial candidates have used the California independent procedures in the past, neither was a true independent. Ed Clark was the Libertarian nominee in 1978, and he used the independent procedure because the Libertarian Party wasn’t on the ballot. Theodore Bell used the independent procedure in 1918, but he was the Democratic Party’s nominee. The 1918 Democratic Party primary had left the party with no nominee, so the party backed Bell and used the independent procedure. The problem the Democrats had in 1918 was that the man who won the Democratic nomination was a registered Republican, but he had also run in the Republican primary and had lost that primary. California law at the time permitted fusion, but someone who lost his own primary but won the primary of another party was excluded from the general election ballot.
On February 16, the New Hampshire House Election Law Committee passed HB 1188, after amending it to make it even better. The vote was 8-6. Now it goes to the House floor.
As amended, the bill helps independent candidates, by cutting the number of signatures for statewide office from 3,000 to 2,000, and also cutting the number of signatures for U.S. House from 1,500 to 1,000, and also reducing the number of signatures for independent candidates for the state legislature. The bill still contains the original improvement, which cuts the number of signatures for a new qualified party from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 1.5% of the number of registered voters. Thanks to Rich Tomasso for this news.
On February 15, the brief was filed in Greene v Bartlett, U.S. District Court, western district. This is the case that challenges the North Carolina independent candidate ballot access procedures, for U.S. House. They are so severe, North Carolina has never had an independent candidate for U.S. House on any government-printed ballot. North Carolina has been using government-printed ballots since 1901.
This lawsuit was filed in 2008, but has been delayed until now.
On February 15, the Arizona Senate Judiciary Committee passed SCR 1043. It would provide that the voters in November 2010 will vote on whether to divert all of the money now earmarked for public funding of campaigns, to public education instead. The funding for the public funding measure has always come mostly from surcharges on traffic fines, parking fines, and other similar sources. See this story. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
