Before the California legislature adjourned, it passed AB 1396, the bill to delete internal Democratic Party rules on party organization from the election code. The bill now goes to Governor Schwarzenegger. The bill provides that the party must keep its bylaws available to the public, by posting them on the party’s web page.
The California legislature’s regular session ended in the early morning hours of September 12, and SCA 16 did not receive a vote. It would have asked the voters if they wish to amend the Constitution and provide for an indirect initiative.
The California legislature is likely to be called into special session later this year, and the measure could be brought up then.
On September 11, Jon Fleischman, a vice-chair of the California Republican Party, announced that he has withdrawn his agenda item from the upcoming state party meeting, that would have barred independent voters from voting in Republican Party primaries (for all public office except President). Fleishman had been trying to pass his idea for the last several years, without success. Thanks to Steve Rankin for this news.
On September 11, the Washington State Attorney General’s office said it will ask the 9th circuit to countermand the September 10 decision in Doe v Reed. That is the case in which a U.S. District Court that said names and addresses of petition signers should not be made public, and that the law that mandates that they be made public is probably unconstitutional.
A U.S. District Court in Reading, Pennsylvania, will hold a pre-trial conference in Constitution Party v Cortes on September 22. Here is the latest brief filed by the three minor parties in the case; it was filed September 10.
The case challenges the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s unique system of requiring petitioning candidates to pay the costs of checking their signatures, if their petitions are found to lack enough valid signatures. The case also challenges Pennsylvania for failing to tally write-ins for some candidates on a completely arbitrary basis, and for failing to count any write-ins whatsoever in certain counties. Finally it challenges the state’s 15% registration membership requirement, to keep a party on the ballot. The 15% registration membership is so tough, it would even require the Utah Democratic Party, and the Massachusetts Republican Party, to submit petitions for all of their nominees, if the Pennsylvania law existed in those other two states. No party in any state, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, has ever held even 5% of any state’s registration in at least 80 years, much less 15%.
