The South Carolina Republican presidential primary results (with 97% of the vote counted) are McCain 143,224; Huckabee 128,908; Thompson 67,897; Romney 64,970; Paul 15,773; Giuliani 9,112; Hunter 1,035.
The Democratic South Carolina will be on Saturday, January 26.
Congressman Duncan Hunter withdrew from the Republican race on the evening of January 19.
With approximately 98% of the Nevada caucus votes counted, as of 4:15 pm Pacific time, the Republican results are: Romney 22,313; Paul 5,742; McCain 5,558; Huckabee 3,500; Thompson 3,475; Giuliani 1,884; Hunter 879.
Democratic results are: Clinton 5,318; Obama 4,731; Edwards 393; Uncommitted 31; 5 Kucinich. For more details, here is CNN’s election returns webpage.
On January 16, the Hawaii Democratic State Central Committee voted 36-5 to rescind an earlier resolution. The earlier resolution proposed that the party file a lawsuit, to obtain a closed primary for itself. Supporters of the open primary said the party would risk making itself unpopular if it went ahead. Thanks to Steve Rankin for this news.
On January 12, the Idaho Republican State Central Committee passed a resolution 89-39, in support of a new lawsuit against the state’s open primary. The party’s previous lawsuit failed on procedural grounds, since the party itself was not a plaintiff. The new resolution speaks on behalf of the state party. If the legislature doesn’t pass a bill letting the Republican Party close its primary, this resolution should empower a new lawsuit.
The resolution specifically advocates that, in future primaries, voters who ask for the Republican primary ballot should sign in as Republicans. Then, in future primaries, those who hadn’t signed in as Republicans at the last primary would not be permitted to choose a Republican ballot, unless they had registered since the last primary or unless they had filed an affiliation form in the interval between the past and the future primary. This idea does not require the state to try to re-register all the state’s voters. Thanks to Steve Rankin for this news.
State legislatures are settling down to work. In Washington state, Rep. Sam Hunt is re-working HB 1534, a bill which will improve ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates. It was introduced in 2007 and was only marginally useful. But Representative Hunt, with input from minor party activists, is amending it. Washington state has two-year legislative sessions, so the bill is still alive. It is likely that the bill will set up a procedure by which a new or previously unqualified party can submit a petition to qualify itself, before it has chosen its nominees. Washington is now the only state in the western half of the U.S. which lacks such a procedure.
In Missouri, Rep. Ted Hoskins has introduced HB 1310, which would make ballot access worse. He introduced a similar bill last year. It requires an independent candidate to submit a declaration of candidacy in March (the petitions themselves would continue to be due in July). Since the bill does not have an exception for independent presidential candidates, it is unconstitutional under Anderson v Celebrezze. It is also unconstitutional under McCarthy v Kirkpatrick, a 1976 3-judge U.S. District Court decision from Missouri.
In New Mexico, three bills have been introduced to provide a means for a major party member to get on a primary ballot, even if that candidate did not have much support at a party endorsements convention. They are HB 190, SB 1, and HB 203. The bills don’t affect qualified minor parties.
In New Hampshire, Senator Peter Burling has introduced SB 437. Its purpose is to replace the old law that was held unconstitutional last year, on the subject of who can get the statewide list of registered voters. The old law said only qualified parties could obtain it. The bill expands that to candidates and political committees (an unqualified political party would fit into the “political committee” category).
In Oklahoma, ballot access improvement bills from last year are still alive, since the state has two-year legislative sessions. They are SB 28 and HB 1539. Thanks to Ruth Bennett, Nancy Ross, Howard Wilson, and Carol Miller, for these items.
