On December 9, the Ohio Senate passed SB 8, the Senate’s version of the omnibus election law bill. The bill is different from HB 260, the House version of the omnibus election law bill.

The Senate bill provides that the voter registration form would ask voters if they wish to join a political party. Proposed section 3503.14 says, “The voter may identify the political party, if any, with which the voter desires to be affiliated. The space for identifying a political party shall be labeled ‘optional’ on any form the Secretary of State prescribes.”

Ohio voter registration forms in the past have never asked about party membership, and Ohio voters in the past have “joined” various political parties by the act of choosing one particular party’s primary ballot. Elections officials keep a record of which party’s primary ballot the voter chooses.

SB 8 provides that a voter who chooses a political party on a voter registration form is thereafter barred from running in any different party’s primary, far into the future. For example, if someone filled out a voter registration form on December 1,2009, saying he or she was a Republican, then that voter would be barred from running in a Democratic Party primary in 2010 or 2011, even if the voter had filled out another registration form on December 2, 2009 showing membership in the Democratic Party. Also someone who filled out a form showing party membership would be barred from running as an independent candidate for the next two years, even if the voter immediately retracted the decision to join a party.

The provision is also vague because it doesn’t say if the question on the voter registration form about political party membership would list any parties, or whether the question would require the voter to write-in the name of the party. And it doesn’t explain how to handle voters who register into parties that are not ballot-qualified.

SB 8 also moves the deadline to file as an independent presidential candidate from 75 days before the general election, to 90 days before. It also moves the deadline for candidates to file to get on a primary ballot from 75 days before the primary, to 90 days before the primary. It does not amend the unconstitutional laws that govern how new parties qualify for the ballot. It moves the deadline for filing as a declared write-in candidate from 62 days before the election to 72 days before.

The publication “City Hall”, of New York city, has been running a lengthy series about the Working Families Party of New York state. The fifth edition of the series, carried on December 3, expands the topic to look at Working Families Parties in other states. See it here.

The December 9 issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has this story about the pending decision of the U.S. Supreme Court over whether or not to hear Doe v Reed. That is the case over whether the names and addresses of people who sign petitions should be made public or not.