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.

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.

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.