On the evening of July 9, the New York city Executive Committee of the Working Families Party nominated William C. Thompson for Mayor. Thompson is expected to be the Democratic Party’s nominee as well. See this story. Thompson needed two-thirds of the vote, and received that, with two votes to spare.

By contrast, in the 2005 Mayoral election, the Working Families Party had no nominee for Mayor, because neither the Democratic nominee, Fernando Ferrer, nor the Republican/Independence nominee, Mayor Bloomberg, were able to win two-thirds of the vote of the WFP’s executive committee.

The District of Columbia city council writes election laws for the District. The D.C. city council Committee on Government Operations will hold a hearing on Monday, July 13, at 11 a.m, on Bill 18-345, the “Omnibus Election Reform Act of 2009.” The bill makes ballot access worse. Bill Redpath, national chair of the Libertarian Party, and Brent McMillan, Political Director of the Green Party, expect to testify that the bill should be amended to improve ballot access, not make it more difficult.

The District of Columbia requires more signatures, as a percentage of the number of voters, for minor party and independent presidential candidates, than any other jurisdiction in the U.S., except for Oklahoma, North Carolina and Wyoming. In 2008 only one presidential petition succeeded in the District. The bill as introduced does not change the number of signatures, but it authorizes the Board to add filing fees in addition to the existing signatures.

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski will sign SB 326, according to the Governor’s spokesperson. See this story.

This development means that 2009 has been the best year for getting ballot access improvement bills through state legislatures since 2004. This year has brought significant ballot access improvements from the state legislatures of Arkansas, Maine, Oregon and West Virginia. It has also brought lesser improvements in the ballot access laws in Louisiana, Texas and Utah. Furthermore, there is a fair chance that Rhode Island’s legislature will decrease the number of signatures for a new party, when the House reconvenes in a few weeks. Thanks to Larry Moskowitz for the link.