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Three California Election Law Bills Advance

Posted on July 7, 2009 by adminJuly 7, 2009

On July 7, both the California Senate Elections Committee, and the Assembly Elections Committee, met and passed several bills of interest.

The Senate Committee passed both SCA 16 and AB 1121. SCA 16 provides for an indirect initiative. If proponents of a statutory change submit petitions with signatures of 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, the legislature must consider their idea. If the legislature and the proponents can’t agree on a proposal, proponents can return to the street and get another 2% of the last gubernatorial vote, and the measure appears on the ballot. The existing initiative requirement for a statutory change is 5%, so this bill does not make it more difficult to get an initiative on the ballot, and might make it easier, in a sense.

The Senate Committee also passed AB 1121, to let 10 non-charter cities or counties use Instant Runoff Voting for their own elections.

The Assembly Committee passed SB 34, which makes it illegal to pay initiative circulators per signature. The Governor’s Office took a position against the bill, which virtually guarantees that he will veto it if it reaches him.

Chelene Nightingale Will Enter American Independent Party Primary for California Governor

Posted on July 7, 2009 by adminJuly 7, 2009

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On July 4, Chelene Nightingale announced her candidacy for Governor of California in the American Independent Party primary. She is an activist on the issue of stopping aliens from entering the United States illegally. Here is her webpage. If she becomes the California AIP’s nominee, she will be its first female gubernatorial candidate since 1978, when Theresa Dietrich was the AIP gubernatorial nominee.

Rhode Island Ballot Access Bill Waits for the House to Reconvene

Posted on July 7, 2009 by adminJuly 7, 2009

Several weeks ago, the Rhode Island Senate passed SB 203, the bill to lower the number of signatures for a new party. The bill still needs to go through the House. The House adjourned early in July, but House leaders intend to bring the House back into session sometime this summer. Currently, no one knows whether that will be in July or in August.

Tennessee County Will Sue State to Keep its Electronic Vote-Counting Machines

Posted on July 7, 2009 by adminJuly 7, 2009

On July 7, the Obion County, Tennessee, Election Commission voted to sue the state of Tennessee. The county is upset because state law requires all counties, starting in 2010, to use vote-counting machines that have a paper trail. Obion County currently uses touch screen machines that have no paper trail. See this article. The county’s claim that no optical scan ballot system is available is puzzling, since hundreds of counties around the U.S. use optical scan ballots. Optical scan ballots are paper ballots that are read by scanning machines, so obviously optical scan ballots do leave a paper trail. They can be recounted by hand if necessary.

Two Major Oregon Newspapers Ask Governor to Sign Ballot Access/Fusion Bill

Posted on July 7, 2009 by adminJuly 7, 2009

On July 6, both The Oregonian (Portland’s daily newspaper) and the Register-Guard (Eugene’s daily newspaper) ran an editorial, advocating that Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski sign SB 326. Here is the Oregonian’s editorial. The Register Guard’s editorial is here. The title is “Bill Restores Voters’ Rights and it Grants Minor Parties New Visibility.”

SB 326 is the bill that eliminates the ban on a primary voter signing an independent candidate’s petition. The bill also permits fusion. The Governor must sign or veto the bills by August 31. Thanks to Dan Meek for this news.