According to this newspaper story, published April 23, Florida legislative leaders say they will drop the controversial portions of this year’s omnibus election law bill. This probably means that the bill will no longer make it illegal to pay initiative circulators on a per-signature basis.
Last year, on July 9, 2008, Delaware’s Governor signed SB 164 into law. It provides that write-in candidates who wish to receive a tally of how many write-in votes they received, must file a declaration of write-in candidacy by September 30 of any election year.
Delaware did not permit write-ins in the general election until 1970, when they were legalized. Between 1970 and 2007, all write-in votes were legal votes, and Delaware generally prepared a list of all write-ins and who they were cast for, at least for president. However, that was not done in 2008. No write-in candidate for president filed a declaration of write-in candidacy in Delaware in 2008, probably because no presidential candidate who was not on the Delaware ballot knew about the new requirement. Thanks to Tim San Souci for this news.
Texas HB 820 will get a hearing in the Texas House Committee that handles election law bills, on April 27, Monday. This is the bill that drastically reduces the number of signatures needed for new and previously unqualified parties, and independent candidates.
Texas is one of only 5 states with ballot access laws so difficult that, in 2008, Ralph Nader didn’t attempt to use them. The others were North Carolina, Oklahoma, Indiana and Georgia.
On April 22, the Oklahoma House passed SJR 13, which would lower the number of signatures needed for an initiative in mid-term election years (although the voters would also need to approve the idea, since the number of signatures is in the State Constitution). Current law requires an initiative that changes a statute to obtain signatures of 8% of the last vote cast. SJR 13 lowers this to 8% of the last gubernatorial vote.
The number of voters in a gubernatorial election year is generally only about two-thirds as high as the number of voters in a presidential election year.
SJR 13 needs a re-vote in the State Senate before it is completely through the legislature. But since it had passed unanimously in its first vote in the State Senate, it seems very likely to pass.
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.
