Maine Governor Signs Bill on How Party Remains on the Ballot

Posted on by June 19, 2009
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On June 17, Maine Governor John Balducci signed LD 1041, the bill that alters how a party remains on the ballot. The old law requires a party to have polled 5% for the office at the top of the ballot, at either of the last two elections (i.e., President or Governor). The new law lets it remain on the ballot if it has 10,000 registrants who voted in the last general election. 10,000 is now 1.06% of the number of registered voters.

The Green Party of Maine, the only ballot-qualified party other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, has about 31,000 registrants, three-fourths of whom typically vote in the general election. Thus the immediate effect of the bill is that the Green Party is virtually assured of remaining on the ballot for an indefinite time into the future, no matter whether it polls 5% for Governor in the future or not.

The law on how a group becomes a qualified party does not change. The normal process by which a group becomes a qualified party in Maine is by running an independent candidate for President or Governor (a party label is permitted when the independent procedure is used). If that candidate gets 5%, the group becomes a qualified party. There is also a 5% party petition, but that has only been used once, in 1996, by the Reform Party.

The Green Party tried very hard to get a bill like LD 1041 passed four years ago, but failed.

Tennessee Legislature Adjourns Without Having Passed Most Election Law Bills

Posted on by June 19, 2009
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On June 18, the Tennessee legislature adjourned for the year. The only interesting election law bill that passed was SB 547, which expanded the size of the State Election Commission, so that Republicans could have a majority on that commission.

Bills that didn’t pass included bills to provide for registration by party, to require voters at the polls to show government photo ID, to require new registrants to submit documents proving that they are citizens, to elect the Secretary of State and the Lieutenant Governor, and to provide for no-excuse absentee voting.

Current law requires vote-counting machines to create a paper trail, effective in 2010. A bill to postpone implementation of that rule to 2012 had been expected to pass, but it did not pass.

No bills were introduced in 2009 to ease procedures for new and previously unqualified parties to get on the ballot. The legislature seems unaware of the pending federal lawsuit filed in January 2008 by the Libertarian, Constitution and Green Parties of Tennessee, challenging those requirements, which are so strict they haven’t been used since 1968. That lawsuit has long been stalled because the Attorney General’s office has failed to respond to the answers to its interrogatories, which were filed last year. The attorney for the political parties expects to file a motion for summary judgment next week, since the state seems uninterested in contesting the evidence.

Rhode Island House Defeats National Popular Vote Bill

Posted on by June 19, 2009
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On June 18, the Rhode Island House defeated the National Popular Vote bill, HB5569, by a vote of 28-45. The awareness that the Governor was likely to veto it anyway probably dampened support for the bill. Last year the legislature had passed the same bill, but Governor Donald Carcieri, a Republican, had vetoed it.

The National Popular Vote Plan bill in the Senate, SB161 (an identical bill), had passed the Senate on May 19. Theoretically the House could still pass SB 161, but that is unlikely.