On May 28, the California Assembly passed AB 909, and AB 6. AB 909 provides that polling place officials must tell independent voters that they are free, at any partisan primary, to choose the primary ballot of the Republican Party, or the Democratic Party, or the American Independent Party (the other 3 qualified parties, Libertarian, Green, and Peace & Freedom, do not permit independents to vote in their primaries; and the Republican Party allows independents to vote for everything except president).

AB 6 says that anyone who pays people to circulate a petition must register with the Secretary of State, and must train his or her employees. This bill is far more benevolent now than when it was first introduced. When it was first introduced, it said that all paid circulators must register as lobbyists. However, that original content was removed.

On May 28, the Illinois legislature passed HB 723, which makes it more difficult for qualified parties to nominate candidates after the primary is over. The old law let qualified parties nominate by committee meeting after the primary, if no one had run for that party in the primary. The bill says that candidates nominated after the primary must submit a petition with the same number of signatures that would have been needed if that candidate had sought a place on the primary ballot. The logic for such a petition is missing. The purpose of the petition to obtain a place on a primary ballot is to keep the primary ballot from being too crowded, but there is no rational reason for a petition for a candidate nominated at a party meeting. The party itself has already shown a modicum of support by having polled at least 5% of the vote in the preceding election.

This bill has no effect for political parties that are not ballot-qualified. The only parties that are currently qualified statewide in Illinois are the Democratic, Republican and Green Parties.

Terry McAuliffe, former national chair of the Democratic National Committee, is the leading candidate for the Virginia Democratic Party’s gubernatorial nomination this year. The primary is in June 2009. Free & Equal has just released a press release, pointing out that whereas this year McAuliffe is saying good things about election participation, in 2004 he spent millions of dollars to physically prevent voters from voting for Ralph Nader. Thanks to Independent Political Report for the news. FURTHER UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times has this, and The Nation is now featuring the story here. UPDATE: a Washington Post blog has picked up the story; see here, and here is a Post news story.