The Washington Secretary of State, Sam Reed, has written a bill redefining “major party” and “minor party”. That bill, SB 5681, has been introduced by nine State Senators. It changes the definition of “major party” from a group that polled 5% for any statewide race, to a group that polled 1% for president in the last presidential election.

That change is necessary because parties in Washington state no longer have nominees, other than presidential nominees. Without this change, there would be no qualified major parties in the state after the U.S. Senate election in 2010.

The bill also changes the definition of “minor party” from any group, to any group that submits a petition of 100 signatures. Washington state law says that candidates should appear on ballots with a statement of which party they “prefer”. Under existing law, they can prefer any group, even an imaginary one. Under the bill, candidates will only be able to “prefer” a major party, or a group that has submitted a petition of 100 names.

Washington State Senator Eric Oemig has introduced SB 5536, which provides that the primary stage should use Ranked Choice Voting to determine which two candidates qualify for the November ballot. The bill has a hearing on Tuesday, February 10, at 1:30 pm in the Senate Committee on Government Operations and Elections. Here is a link to the bill.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to call a special statewide election for various questions concerning the budget. If he does, that ballot will also include a vote on the Public Funding bill the legislature passed last year. See this Los Angeles Times story. Even though the Public Funding bill did not alter the state constitution, a vote of the public is needed to implement it, since it alters campaign finance laws that themselves had once been approved by an initiative. In California, laws passed by initiative cannot be changed by the legislature without another vote of the people.

Last year’s public funding bill discriminates against independent candidates, by requiring them to get twice as many qualifying contributions (to be eligible for any public funding whatsoever), compared to Democrats and Republican candidates.