According to this British newspaper, both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party now say they support lowering the voting age in Great Britain from 18 to 16. The article also says that the voting age in Austria is currently 16. Thanks to Ed Still for the link.
On the evening of March 4, the Brooklyn Republican Party voted overwhelmingly to let Mayor Michael Bloomberg run in the New York city Republican primary in September 2009. Bloomberg needs permission from the committees in at least three of the five boroughs, because he is a registered independent, not a registered Republican. His strong showing in Brooklyn makes it likely that he will also receive permission from at least two other borough committees.
On March 3, the Arizona House Government Committee passed HB 2587. The bill would outlaw paying initiative circulators on a per signature basis. The vote was 8-0. The bill doesn’t seem to outlaw paying circulators bonuses for high production, but it is vague. It says, “A circulator may not receive compensation for collecting signatures if that compensation is based on the number of signatures collected.”
Thirty-eight Vermont state representatives have introduced H396, which would provide that Vermont use Instant Runoff Voting for gubernatorial elections (the general election only). The preamble to the bill makes the case that the idea is consistent with the Vermont Constitution. There has always been ambiguity in Vermont over whether the State Constitution is consistent with IRV in gubernatorial elections.
Indiana State Senator Sue Landske said recently that the issue of ballot access may perhaps be added to the agenda for the Summer Study Committee, when it considers various election law changes. Indiana ballot access is so severe, no statewide minor party or independent candidate petition has succeeded since 2000, when Pat Buchanan (who had $16,000,000 in taxpayer funds, since he was the nominee of the Reform Party, which had polled over 5% in 1996), did the Indiana petition.
Indiana is one of only 5 states in which Ralph Nader has never been on the ballot. Indiana currently requires over 32,000 valid signatures, due by the end of June of an election year. Thanks to Doug Gaking for this news.
