Both houses of the Virginia legislature have passed bills that say voters at the polls may wear clothing that supports a party or a candidate, such as a T-shirt or a hat. The bills also permit wearing buttons that indicate support for a candidate or a party. SB 867 passed the Senate on February 9, and HB 1610 (incorporated into HB 1878) passed the House on February 5.
Georgia State Senator Gail Buckner (D-Morrow) has introduced SB 35, which requires all candidates for any district office to swear under penalty of perjury that they live in the district they seek to represent. The bill does not make an exemption for U.S. House candidates, and therefore would be unconstitutional if it were enacted. The U.S. Constitution does not require candidates for U.S. House to live in any particular district, and states are not permitted to add to the qualifications for U.S. House.
Idaho House member Branden Durst (D-Boise) has introduced HB 27, to provide for public funding of legislative candidates. Unlike other such proposals, the bill provides certain candidates would automatically qualify for general election public funding, just by being ballot-qualified for the general election. Generally, public funding laws require candidates to show substantial support by having raised a certain number of private contributions. But HB 27 says any nominee of a party that polled at least 33% of the vote in the previous election for Governor, President or legislature (inside that district) gets $15,000 automatically.
The bill also has a formula for primary season public funding which does depend on the candidate’s having raised a certain amount of private contributions.
Candidates for the general election who are not nominees of parties that polled 33% could also get public funding if they submit 1,000 signatures of voters in their district.
On February 13, the South Dakota Senate Local Government Committee passed HB 1019 unanimously. It had already passed the House. It codifies the ability of political parties to say whether or not they wish to let independent voters vote in their primaries. The party must decide by January 1 of any election year. It is not clear how this will work in the case of parties that qualify after January 1.
Oklahoma State Representative Ryan Kiesel (D-Seminole) has introduced HB 2206, to provide that the voters decide in November 2010 whether they want to make these changes to the election code: (1) lower the number of signatures for a new party from 5% of the last vote cast to exactly 5,000 signatures: (2) lower the vote test for a party to remain on the ballot from 10% to 1%; (3) let 17-year olds vote in a primary if they will be age 18 by the general election; (4) establish election day voter registration; (5) abolish the Straight-Ticket device; (6) lower the number of signatures for an independent presidential candidate from 3% of the last presidential vote to exactly 5,000, or let an independent presidential candidate on the ballot with no petition by paying a fee of $5,000; (7) establish early voting.
