For the first time ever, Iowa is keeping track of how many people register as members of unqualified parties. This is because the Iowa Libertarian and Green Parties won a lawsuit on this subject last year. Those two parties are the only parties that then applied to be on the Voter Registration form. Forms listing those two parties have only been in existence for a month.
The Iowa Secretary of State says there are now 58 registered Libertarians and 34 registered Greens.
Molly O’Leary, Chief of the Pennsylvania Division of Voter Registration, has said that Pennsylvania elections officials will continue to tally voters who are registered in the Constitution, Green and Libertarian Parties. These parties ceased to be parties under the Pennsylvania definition of “political party”, in November 2006. They lost their status because they did not poll as much as 2% of the winning candidate’s vote in any statewide race in 2006. They failed the vote test because their nominees were kept off the ballot.
This will be the first time that Pennsylvania elections officials have agreed to tally the number of registrants in any parties that no longer meet the definition of “political party”. It is possible that Pennsylvania made this decision because courts have ruled that unqualified parties to have a right to the tally. These decisions are from New York, New Jersey, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Iowa.
On February 14, a Michigan Circuit Court upheld a law that makes it illegal for anyone to circulate a recall petition, unless he or she lives in the district represented by the officer who is the subject of the recall petition. Plaintiffs are appealing to the Michigan State Court of Appeals. The case is Ebbers v Secretary of State, Kent County, 08-699-cv.
On February 19, the Nebraska Senate (the only house in the Nebraska legislature) overrode last week’s gubernatorial veto of LB 39. As a result, it will soon be illegal for anyone to circulate a petition in Nebraska, unless they are Nebraska residents. Also it will be illegal to pay people to circulate a petition if they are paid per signature.
According to this story, a group of Michigan Democratic activists has begun agitation to set up caucuses this year, so that Michigan Democrats could win back their delegation to the Democratic National Convention.
