On May 16, Vermont Governor Jim Douglas vetoed SB 270, the bill for the National Popular Vote Plan. There is no chance his veto can be overridden, since the legislature decided not to return to consider overriding any veto. If the bill had not been vetoed, Vermont would have become the 5th state to approve the plan.
On May 16, the Missouri passed SB 797, the bill to fix the technical glitch in the ballot access procedures for new parties. The existing law says a petition to qualify a new party doesn’t need to list any candidates, except that if the party intends to run for president, the petition needs to list the presidential and vice-presidential candidates and the candidates for presidential elector. SB 797 fixes that problem. The intent of the law (created in 1993) was to let parties qualify before they had chosen any candidates. Thanks to Ken Bush for his persistent attempts over the years to solve this problem.
HB 1310, the bill to move the independent candidate deadline from July to March, failed to pass, and the legislature has now adjourned for the year.
SB 797 is a somewhat modest improvement, but it is the only bill that has passed any state legislature this year, to help minor party and independent candidate ballot access. It would be a grim year indeed that saw no legislative improvements whatsoever.
On May 16, a controversial Republican choice for the Federal Election Commission, Hans von Spakovsky, withdrew his name from consideration for one of the 4 vacant seats on the Federal Election Commission. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.
As a result, the U.S. Senate is likely to fill all the vacancies on the FEC by the end of May. The new Commission will almost certainly consist of these individuals:
Democrats: holdover appointee Ellen L. Weintraub; Cynthia L. Bauerly; and Steven T. Walther. Bauerly is from Minnesota and is a former Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Walther is from Nevada.
Republicans: Donald F. McGahn; Caroline C. Hunter; and a third name still to be determined. McGahn formerly represented Tom DeLay in election law court cases. Hunter was an attorney for the Republican National Committee in 2003; she oversaw the Republican lobbying effort to persuade states to relax their deadlines for parties to certify their presidential candidates. The 2004 Republican National Convention was so late in the year, 7 states had to be persuaded to relax their certification deadlines.
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.
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.
