Alaska state representative Harry Crawford (D-Anchorage) has introduced HB 248, which would establish a new, additional primary ballot (in partisan races) just for independent voters. Alaska has registration by party, and over half the voters are registered independents. The primary ballot for independent voters would include the names of all candidates running for partisan office, from all the qualified parties.

The votes cast in the independent voter primary would be tallied into the vote tallies for the partisan primaries.

Under existing Alaska law and procedures, the Republican Party has its own primary ballot, and independents and Republicans are free to choose that primary ballot. Then there is a blanket primary ballot, which contains the names of all Democrats, Libertarians, and Alaskan Independence candidates. Any voter is free to choose that ballot.

So, already, independents can vote in either type of primary ballot. But if HB 248 became law, an independent voter would be free to vote for any candidate of any party, so that the independent could vote for a Republican for Governor and a Democrat for U.S. Senator.

Since all qualified parties in Alaska already let independent voters voter in their primaries, it doesn’t seem likely that any qualified party would object to the bill or the idea behind the bill. Although there are already a multitude of primary systems in the United States, it seems that the idea behind HB 248 is a new idea, something that has never been tried before. Missouri once had a primary ballot just for independent voters, but the purpose of that primary was to nominate independent candidates for inclusion on the general election ballot. Aside from that Missouri procedure (which no longer exists), no state has ever printed up primary ballots for partisan elections that are intended only for independent voters. Thanks to Scott Kohlhaas for this news.

On January 27, the Alabama House Constitution and Elections Committee defeated HB 142 by a vote of 6-5. See here. The sponsor of the bill is Representative Cam Ward (R-Alabaster). The link points to his blog. He will ask for reconsideration.

HB 142 would have lowered the independent candidate petition (for office other than president) from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 1.5%. Alabama is the only state in which all routes to the ballot for non-major party candidates, for statewide office other than president, are worse than 2% of the last vote cast. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.

A lawsuit against the Alabama 3% requirement, for U.S. House, is currently pending in the 11th circuit. All the briefs are in. It is not yet determined whether the 11th circuit will ask for oral argument. The basis for the lawsuit is that in at least one particular U.S. House district, the 3% formula requires an independent candidate for U.S. House to obtain more signatures than are needed for an independent presidential candidate. The U.S. District Court had upheld that, even though twice the U.S. Supreme Court has said that states may not require more signatures for an office in just part of a state, than for a statewide office. The U.S. District Court said the U.S. Supreme Court precedent only applies if the office within just part of the state is a municipal office. The U.S. District Court didn’t even mention the other U.S. Supreme Court precedent, which concerned comparing county office to statewide office.