Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed has written a proposed bill that clarifies some problems with the existing “top-two” primary system. The bill defines a qualified major party to be a group that polled at least 1% for president in the last presidential election.

Existing law says a qualified major party is one that polled 5% for any statewide office at the last election in which a statewide office was on the ballot. That existing definition is no longer workable, however, because the “top-two” initiative passed by the voters in November 2004 says that parties don’t have nominees any longer, except for president. Under the existing law, there wouldn’t be any qualified major parties in Washington state after the U.S. Senate election in November 2010, because there would be no party nominees in that election.

The proposed bill also defines qualified minor party to be a group that submits a petition of 100 voters by the first Monday in March, asking that the group be recognized as a party.

Washington state primary and general election ballots, under the “top-two” system, give each candidate a chance to say which party he or she prefers. Assuming this proposed bill passes, candidates will not be able to say they prefer just any group; they can only say they prefer a qualified major party or a qualified minor party. In the 2008 elections, some candidates said they preferred “parties” that clearly aren’t organizations, such as the Salmon Yoga Party or the GOP Party.

One might wonder what difference it makes for a group to be a qualified major party. The answer is that qualified major parties get their own presidential primary, and they are permitted to elect party officers in the September primary. Also their presidential nominee is put on the November ballot automatically with no petition needed.

A South Carolina bill to ban fusion (the ability of two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate) has been introduced. It is H 3067. The sponsors are six Republican legislators, including Majority Leader Kenneth Bingham and Whip Jim Merrill. Republicans have a majority in both houses of the South Carolina legislature. The other sponsors are Representatives Alan Clemmons, Joan Brady, Michael Pitts, and Bill Wylie.

Bills to abolish fusion in South Carolina have made some headway in the past, but have never passed all the way through the legislature.

Wyoming election laws require the Secretary of State to certify names for the general election ballot no later than 60 days before the November election. However, in both 2004 and 2008, the Republican National Convention was so late, the Republican certification naming the presidential and vice-presidential nominees arrived so late that the Secretary of State was unable to strictly comply with the state deadline. Now, the Secretary of State has asked the legislature to provide that if any qualified party in the future is late with its certification, the ballot will only say (for example), “Republican Party candidate” instead of “John McCain and Sarah Palin.”

This provision is included in HB 76, which is an omnibus bill of election law changes. The sponsors are Senator Cale Case (R-Lander) and Representative Pete Illoway (R-Cheyenne).

Of course, in 2012, the Republicans will be certain to have an earlier national convention anyway. Strong tradition provides that the major party that holds the White House holds its convention later than the other major party, so it is the Democratic Party that will need to heed this bill in 2012, if the bill passes.