The California Assembly is expected to vote on three interesting election law bills on Monday, July 16. SB 37 is the National Popular Vote Plan. SB 408 would restrict who could circulate a statewide initiative petition. SB 439 would legalize write-ins when the voter forgets to “X” the box next to the name written in.
UPDATE: The National Popular Vote bill will not be brought up until August.
The Green Party is holding a national meeting July 12-15 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Attendees in Reading will hear presentations on whether the 2008 national presidential convention should be in Minneapolis, Chicago or Detroit. A decision won’t be made until August 15, 2007. Several Green Party members who hold elective office in Minneapolis will be making the pitch for Minneapolis at the Reading meeting.
The Constitution Party will probably hold its national convention during the last week of April 2008 in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Libertarian Party had already previously chosen Denver, the last weekend of May 2008.
The major party conventions will be in Minneapolis (Republican) and Denver (Democratic).
On July 11, the North Carolina legislature passed H91. It lets voters register as late as 3 days before any election, as long as they go to their own county’s early voting location. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.
On July 11, 71 activists and officers in the Idaho Republican Party filed a lawsuit, arguing that Idaho’s open primary is unconstitutional as applied to a political party that wants a closed primary. The case is Beck v Ysursa, no. 07-299, U.S. District Court.
The Idaho Republican Party itself is not a co-plaintiff. However, the State Central Committee did pass a resolution on June 17, 2006, in favor of an open primary for the state party. Also the co-plaintiffs include fifteen members of the State Central Committee. The complaint is a class action, in which the “class” are all Republicans in Idaho. This aspect of the case (unusual in election law constitutional cases) may result in the Idaho Republican Party itself being forced to intervene. If that happens, the party itself will need to take a position. See here for the complaint.
An earlier post mentioned that a leading newspaper chain had written an article about Pennsylvania Democrats trying to attach Ralph Nader’s bank account. Here is the full version of that story, along with many passionate comments from people who read the CommonDreams site. Thanks to Ross Dreyer for this link.
