British Columbia is holding a referendum on May 12. Voters will be asked whether they would rather use the current winner-take-all system, or single transferable vote. See the web page of the British Columbia Elections Office here. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this link.
As has been noted previously, the Oklahoma House recently passed HB 1072, which eases ballot access for previously unqualified parties in midterm years, but does not help them in presidential years. OBAR (Oklahoma Ballot Access Reform) has been paying a professional lobbyist $2,500 per month to advance and to improve this bill. The lobbyist has been paid through the end of March 2009. He is working on getting the bill amended in the Senate, so that it makes more significant improvements. Unfortunately, OBAR has exhausted its funds, and cannot pay for April work. Any contributions to OBAR will not be wasted, and will be used for his April work. Other organizations that assist ballot access, such as COFOE and Free & Equal, are likely to help. But if you wish to help, please send a check to OBAR, PO Box 14042, Tulsa Ok 74159-1042. Even small amounts are worthwhile and very much needed. UPDATE: COFOE has just voted to donate $500 for the April lobbyist bill.
On March 17, the Colorado House passed HB 1299, the National Popular Vote Plan bill. The vote was 34-29.
On March 13 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to rehear the matter of whether the Green Party’s 2006 U.S. Senate nominee must pay approximately $80,000 to the people who challenged his petition. Apparently the State Supreme Court is willing to rethink the matter because of last year’s revelations that the people who challenged both Nader in 2004 and the Green Party in 2006 illegally used state employees and state resources to prepare their petition challenges. Thanks to Larry Otter for this news. The case is still called In re: Nomination Papers of Rogers, No. 6 MAP 2009.
The bill in Washington state to authorize letting overseas absentee voters use the internet to vote will not pass this year. Although it had cleared the policy committee in the House, it was never brought up for a vote in the full House. Bills in Washington state that didn’t pass their house of origin by March 12 are now dead. The bill was HB 1624.
