Rhode Island Representative David Segal (D-Providence) has this op-ed in the New York Times of January 25. It advocates an end to gubernatorial appointments of U.S. Senators, and also advocates that special elections to fill U.S. Senate vacancies should skip the primary stage and use Instant-Runoff Voting. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog for the link.
Alabama Representative Cam Ward (R-Alabaster) has agreed to introduce a bill to lower the number of signatures needed for minor parties and non-presidential independent candidates. He has been in the legislature since 2003. Thanks to Steven Gordon for this news.
Tennessee law says that the political party holding a majority in the State House of Representatives is entitled to appoint a majority of the seats in each county’s Election Commission. That provision, in existence since 1870, has never been tested or applied because Republicans had never had a majority in the State House of Representatives. But in 2008 Republicans did gain a one-vote majority in the House. Now, county Election Commissioners are wondering about their status, as this interesting newspaper story explains.
Even though the Nebraska Director of Elections tried to find a sponsor in the legislature for a bill to make it easier for a party to remain on the ballot, no such bill has been introduced, and the deadline for new bills has passed.
This newspaper article explains that the Nebraska legislature has an unusually small number of bills this year. The explanation is that the many new legislators are reluctant to introduce bills. There are many new legislators in Nebraska this year, because legislative term limits finally took effect.
The bill that had been proposed to assist minor parties would have said that when a party meets the 5% vote test, it remains on the ballot for the next two elections, instead of just one election.
Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller, a Democrat, has asked the Nevada legislature to move the deadline for all non-presidential candidates to January of election years, even though the Nevada primary is held in August. The bill to make this change is AB 82, introduced by the Assembly Committee on Elections, Procedures, Ethics, and Constitutional Amendments, on behalf of the Secretary.
The bill also moves the non-presidential independent petition deadline to January. Minor parties, which nominate by convention, would need to have nominated their candidates by January. Major party members seeking to run in the August primary would file a declaration of candidacy no later than January.
