Ex-Congressman Bob Barr announced today that he is setting up an exploratory committee to run for the Libertarian Party presidential nomination.
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Here is a summary of U.S. Senator Bill Nelson’s speech to the Florida Senate on March 27. In the speech, he said he will soon introduce federal legislation, and a proposed constitutional amendment, to do these things: abolish the Electoral College, establish a regional rotating schedule of six presidential primary dates, mandate no-excuse absentee voting for federal elections, mandate a paper trail for all vote-counting systems for federal elections, and provide grants to states for all-mail voting.
It would be valuable for Florida constituents of Senator Nelson to ask him to also include ballot access reform in federal elections. Although ballot access reform has been introduced in the U.S. House ten times, and a bill is pending there currently (HR 3600), no U.S. Senator has ever introduced a bill on ballot access.
On April 4, Vermont Governor James Douglas, a Republican, vetoed SB 108, which would have provided that Vermont use Instant-Runoff voting in congressional general elections. Thanks to Rob Richie for the news.
Here is Ralph Nader’s response brief, in his lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee now pending in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia. Nader is arguing that the case should not be dismissed on summary judgment, and that a trial is needed.
An earlier post noted that the Kansas House had passed a bill setting up a presidential primary in 2012 (Kansas had been one of 10 states this year with caucuses instead of a presidential primary). The 2012 presidential primary bill is HB 2683, but that bill also requires voters at the polls to show photo-ID. This article discusses the bill and the possibility that if it passes all the way through the legislature, it will be vetoed.