On April 23, the New York State Senate is holding a hearing in Buffalo to hear Law Professor James Gardner make the case for many election law reforms, including easing the deadline for a voter to switch parties and still vote in the primary of the new party. See this news story.

Currently, New York has the nation’s most restrictive law on timing for voters to switch political parties. If a voter in New York wants to vote in the Republican Party primary in September 2010 (for example), and that voter is currently a member of another qualified party, then that voter must switch to the Republican Party by October 9, 2009. Thanks to Gary Popkin for that date.

Vermont S117 passed the State Senate on April 21, although a second vote will be held on April 23. It would move the primary (for office other than president) from September to August. The bill would not affect the petition deadlines for independent candidates.

On April 22, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner released a 36-page set of recommendations for changes in Ohio election laws. Included in the set of recommendations is a two-page chapter on ballot access laws for minor political parties. The report recommends a petition of one-fourth of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote to qualify a party. It also recommends a 1% vote test to determine whether a party should remain on the ballot. The vote test would be applied every four years and any statewide office could satisfy the test.

The report recommends a petition deadline of 90 days before the primary (although some of the text seems to contradict that, and seems to recommend a 75-day deadline). This very early deadline would be in early December of the year before the election, in presidential election years. The report suggests keeping a very early deadline, because the Ohio Constitution requires all qualified parties to nominate by primary, and the Ohio primary is in March in presidential years. A footnote in the report says, “There has been some discussion of modifying the Ohio Constitution to allow nomination via convention for minor and intermediate parties. This very significant change in elections procedure requires greater study before the Secretary of State can make a final recommendation for or against altering the Ohio Constitution.”

Fortunately, former Secretary of State Robert Taft, in 1996, established a precedent that a new party that only wants to run a presidential ticket is permitted to file as late as August of election years, a precedent reaffirmed by Secretary Brunner in 2007. The report does not discuss that precedent. One hopes that it would become codified in the election law. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the news.

Currently, one-quarter of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote would be 10,057 signatures. If the 2009-2010 session of the Ohio legislature soon passes a bill implementing these ideas, then that petition requirement would be in force for the 2010 election. However, if the legislature does nothing, or if it does not pass any legislation on this matter until early 2010, then it is likely that the Libertarian, Green, Constitution and Socialist Parties will be on the ballot automatically in 2010. One couldn’t expect these parties to complete a petition of 10,057 signatures for the 2010 election if the law requiring such a petition doesn’t exist until just a few weeks before the deadline. Because the primary in midterm years is in May, the petition deadline recommended by this report for 2010 would be in February 2010.