The Maine Senate had passed the “National Popular Vote Plan” for presidential elections on April 2 (LD 1744). However, on April 14, the House voted to postpone the bill indefinitely. Since the legislature will probably adjourn this month, it is unlikely that it can pass this year.
On April 11, Idaho Governor Butch Otter signed S.1514. It takes effect immediately. It says that if someone changes his name and then runs for office, the ballot will list both the candidate’s new name and the old name. The bill was introduced because Marvin Richardson had changed his name last year to “Pro-Life” and is running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate. The primary is May 27. The ballot will now say, “Pro-Life, Formerly Known as Marvin Richardson.”
On April 11, the Idaho Republican Party filed a lawsuit in federal court, to obtain a closed primary for itself. See this news story. The case is Idaho Republican Party v Ysursa, no. 08-cv-165.
In 2007, a group of Idaho Republican Party leaders had filed a similar lawsuit, but that lawsuit lost because it hadn’t been filed by the party itself.
The Idaho Republican Party is the third state unit of a major party to file such a lawsuit. The Virginia Republican Party already won its lawsuit, and we are awaiting a decision from the 5th circuit in the Mississippi Democratic Party case. Thanks to Steve Rankin for this news.
Josh Goodman has posted this interesting analysis on whether the National Popular Vote Plan can really pass in enough states to take effect. It is dated April 11, 2008.
Filing for the June North Dakota primary closed on April 11. The Libertarian Party and the Constitution Party both are entitled to their own primaries, but no one filed in either party’s primary for any public office. This has no effect on the presidential part of the ballot, of course, and those parties will be on for president.
North Dakota has few minor party candidates. They are discouraged by a law that says they must poll 300 votes in the open primary. Similar laws were found unconstitutional in both Washington and Minnesota in 2004. North Dakota is the only state that still requires a party candidate whose name is on the primary ballot to not only outpoll any other candidates seeking the same nomination, but also to worry about polling a specified minimum number of votes.
