On April 21, the California Senate Appropriations Committee passed SB 1322, which removes certain laws that discriminate against Communist Party members. The bill is not an election law bill. But if it passes, it should be possible to also repeal certain California laws that discriminate against Communist Party members in the election code and in the state Constitution. California is one of only six states that have such provisions in its election laws.
Utah has two ballot-qualified parties, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties. Both the Constitution and Libertarian Parties have completed their nominations process.
Utah has 75 state house seats. The Constitution Party has nominees in 38 of them, and the Libertarian Party has nominees in 7 of them. Between the two parties, 41 of the 75 seats will have a minor party nominee on the ballot.
For the statewide state offices, there are Libertarians running for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and Auditor. There is a Constitution nominee for Auditor.
For the 3 US House seats, the Constitution Party has nominees in all 3, and the Libertarians have nominees in 2. Utah doesn’t have a US Senate seat up this year.
Earlier this month, Alabama Representative Cam Ward introduced HB 738, which cuts the number of signatures for an independent (for office other than president) from 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, to 1.5%. Representative Ward spoke to the Alabama Libertarian state convention on April 19, and said he intended his bill to reduce the 3% petition requirement for minor parties as well, and that he will amend his own bill to also reduce the new party petition.
The U.S. Supreme Court did not release any full opinions on April 21, but it probably will on April 22. That might include the Indiana government photo-ID case for voting at the polls. Also, on April 22 the Court hears arguments in Davis v Federal Election Commission, the case over the part of the McCain-Feingold law called the “Millionaires’ Amendment.” UPDATE: RicK Hasen of electionlawblog says that there will be no U.S. Supreme Court opinions on April 22, but there may be some on April 23 (Wednesday). If the Indiana case doesn’t come down on April 23, the next possible date is April 28.
Daily Kos posted a short item about Green Party U.S. Senate candidate Rebekah Kennedy, who is the only opposition to Democratic Senator Mark Pryor this year in Arkansas. The Daily Kos posting was made at 10:19 am on April 19, and it received 554 comments within the first 25 hours after it was posted.
Some Daily Kos readers have such a knee-jerk dislike of minor parties, many posters claimed that Kennedy is just trying to be a “spoiler”. Other posters repeatedly pointed out that no Republican is running in that race. One poster said that, nevertheless, if Kennedy polls a large share of the vote, that might weaken Pryor so much that Republicans might endanger him in 2014. Some posters indicated they had not even been aware that the U.S. Senate race is between a Green and a Democrat, so the exchange (on a web page with hundreds of thousands of readers) certainly increased awareness of the Arkansas Senate race.
