According to New York State campaign spending reports, last year Governor David A. Paterson donated $25,000 to the New York State Working Families Party.
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Maine Representative Mark Bryant (D-Windham) has introduced LD 28. It would make it illegal for someone to circulate an initiative petition if that circulator is not a registered voter. The U.S. Supreme Court already ruled in 1999 that the U.S. Constitution protects the right of people who are not registered to vote to circulate an initiative petition.
Bills have been introduced in both houses of the Missouri legislature to restrict who can circulate an initiative petition. They are HB 228 and SB 115. The House sponsor is Rep. Michael Parson (R-Bolivar). The Senate sponsor is Senator Joan Bray (D-St. Louis). The bills would outlaw out-of-state circulators, and also outlaw paying circulators on a per-signature basis. They also would make it illegal for anyone to circulate two initiative petitions simultaneously. Thanks to Tom Knapp for this news.
On January 15, the Tennessee legislature, in joint session, elected a new Secretary of State. He is Tre Hargett, the first Republican Secretary of State since at least 1870, if not ever. The Tennessee Constitution since 1870 has required that the legislature elect the Secretary of State. Republicans gained a legislative majority in the November 2008 election (the two houses sit together as one big group, when the Secretary of State is chosen). The vote was 70 for Hargett, and 61 for incumbent Democratic Secretary of State Riley Darnell. The term is for 4 years.
The attitude of the new Secretary of State toward minor parties is not known. Tennessee has not had any parties on the ballot, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, since 1972, when the American Party last appeared. A lawsuit is pending in federal court against the Tennessee procedures for ballot access for political parties. There may also be bills introduced to ease the procedure. The legislature, having organized itself, is about to adjourn again, and will reconvene on February 9. Bills will be introduced starting on that date.
Hargett, age 39, represented a Memphis district in the State House for ten years, and most recently has been the Director of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority.
The Wall Street Journal of January 15, 2009, has this op-ed by Law Professor Michael Stokes Paulsen. It argues that the recent U.S. Senate recount in Minnesota suffered from disparate standards in various counties. That may be an accurate observation, but the op-ed misinforms its readers when it refers back to the 2000 Florida presidential recount.
The op-ed says, “Subsequent media counts (of all the Florida 2000 presidential votes) confirmed that Bush won anyway, under any uniform standard.”
The 2000 Florida ballots were recounted by a consortium of news organizations. That work was not completed until late in 2001. The New York Times of November 12, 2001, and other participating news organizations, explained that if only the four counties in which Gore had requested a recount had been counted, Bush would have won. But if all the votes from the entire state had been recounted, Gore would have won. The New York Times said on page one, Nov. 12, 2001, “Ballot standards under which all disqualified ballots statewide would have been reexamined; Gore would have received the most votes.” Specifically, the count would have been Gore 2,924,695; Bush 2,924,588.