The Delaware legislature only has one more day before it adjourns for the year. HB 177, which would have outlawed fusion, has not passed the House yet, nor the Senate. It is virtually certain to die. Advocates of fusion worked hard to defeat the bill.
On June 27, the lawsuit filed by the Iowa Libertarian and Green Parties in 2005 was finally settled, without any need for a judicial decision. The State has agreed to let voters register into any unqualified party that (1) submits 850 signatures; (2) has placed candidates on the ballot in the last ten years. Iowa and Kansas had been the only states in which it was physically impossible for a voter to register into any party that is not a ballot-qualified party. Now, Iowa will start printing a blank line on the “political party” question, on the voter registration forms. This outcome would not have been possible without the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and its attorney, Randall Wilson.
Groups that submit the 850 signatures, and which have placed candidates on the ballot recently, will be entitled to a list of any voters, with their addresses, who register as members of such groups.
The right of a voter to register into an unqualified party has now been won, either by lawsuit decisions or by settlements, in Iowa, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Jersey, and New York. However, in Oklahoma, even though the lawsuit won, the state implemented it with great stinginess; the outcomes have been far better in the other states named above.
The Minnesota Secretary of State has set up a Ranked Choice Voting Issues Group. The panel had its first meeting on June 27. The group’s goal is to assist cities in Minnesota that desire to use Instant-Runoff Voting and other alternate vote systems. Perhaps one inspiration for the Secretary of State’s action is to avoid the problems in California, when cities like San Francisco were largely left to their own devices, after having decided to switch to IRV.
On June 25, New Hampshire Governor John Lynch signed HB 272. It gives the Secretary of State even more flexibility to set the date of the presidential primary than he had had before. The new law not only lets him set the date of the primary itself, but also lets him sets the dates for candidates to file, and all other dates (such as absentee ballot deadlines, etc.) that relate to the election. This will enable the Secretary of State to outmaneuver other states that are also trying to make last-minute decisions about their presidential primary dates. Thanks to Tony Roza for this news.
On June 27, a group of four Michigan Republican State Senators, including the Majority Leader of the Senate, introduced SB624. It provides for a January 29 presidential primary in 2008. It also says that if the parties that are qualified to hold a presidential primary jointly desire a different date, their wishes shall prevail. It also says that if all the parties that are entitled to a presidential primary agree to cancel the primary, it will be cancelled.
The same four Senators also introduced SB 625, which is virtually identical, except it sets the 2008 primary on February 5. Both bills also amend the existing law so that it becomes more difficult for a party to qualify for its own presidential primary. Existing law says that any party that got 5% for president in the last election (in the entire USA) is entitled to a presidential primary. The bill changes that to 25% for president in the last election, within Michigan.
Both bills provide that voters who wish to vote in a presidential primary must choose one party’s ballot, and the names and addresses of voters who choose any particular party’s ballot are provided to that political party. Currently, Michigan has an open primary in which voters decide which primary to vote in, in the secrecy of the voting booth. Thanks to Tom Jones for this news.
