Restrictive Illinois Election Law Bills Face Deadline

Posted on by May 16, 2008
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Two bills pending in the Illinois House would injure minor parties and/or independent candidates. HB 5263 makes it more difficult for ballot-qualified parties to nominate candidates. It must pass the House Elections & Campaign Reform Committee by May 22, or it will die. That committee did hold a hearing on the bill last week. Witnesses from the Green Party believe they at least persuaded the committee to amend the bill, so it does less damage. Currently, ballot-qualified parties are permitted to nominate by party meeting, if the March primary resulted in no nominee. The bill would force candidates nominated by party meeting to submit a petition.

HB 2673, which would restore the straight-ticket device to Illinois ballots, must pass the House Committee by May 23. Illinois used the straight-ticket device until 1997. A straight-ticket device makes it possible for the voter to vote on all partisan races without even looking to see who is running for each office.

Newspaper Story About Write-ins in Pennsylvania April 2008 Primary

Posted on by May 16, 2008
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This newspaper story from Clarion County, Pennsylvania, discusses write-ins at the April 22, 2008 primary. It says 4% of Republicans wrote in someone for president, and 2.2% of Democrats did so. The newspaper story does not mention the fact that Pennsylvania has no write-in declaration of candidacy law, so all write-ins must be counted. The story does point out that local offices are frequently filled by write-in votes.

California Bill, Deleting Certain Discriminatory Laws Against Communist Party Members, Passes Senate

Posted on by May 16, 2008
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On May 15, the California Senate passed SB 1322 by 24-16. It deletes some California laws (long ago held unconstitutional) that discriminate against Communist Party members. SB 1322 does not repeal any election laws that discriminate against Communists, but if SB 1322 is eventually signed into law, it may make it easier to delete such election laws in the near future. California is one of only six states that has laws that discriminate against Communists in elections. The other states are Illinois, Kansas, Arizona, Arkansas, and Pennsylvania. None of the states enforce these laws; they were implicitly held unconstitutional in 1974 by a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court. The California election laws (1) do not permit anyone to run for any office, partisan or non-partisan, if that person is a member of the Communist Party or has been in the last 5 years; (2) bar subversive parties from the ballot.

Independent Vermont Legislator Drops Out of State Senate Race, Endorses the Progressive Nominee

Posted on by May 15, 2008
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Independent Vermont State Representative Daryl L. Pillsbury had been running for the State Senate as an independent this year. But on May 14, he dropped out of the Senate race and endorsed Progressive Party nominee Molly S. Burke. See this story.

Pillsbury has represented Brattleboro as an independent since 2000. He is currently one of the two independents in the Vermont House.

Although the Vermont House has had dozens of minor party and independent members in the last few decades, the Vermont Senate has been composed only of Democrats and Republicans, ever since the 1867 election. The Senate is much smaller than the House; the Senate has 30 members but the House has 150.