Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a Democrat, is asking the Minnesota legislature to pass SF1298 and HF1110. These are identical bills that shrink the amount of time permitted for a group to circulate a petition to become a qualified party.

The Minnesota petition to create a new party has existed unchanged since 1913. It is a petition of 5% of the last vote cast, due in mid-July of election years. A group can start as soon as it wishes and take as long as it wishes. Nevertheless, it is so difficult, it has never been used on a statewide basis. For 2008, it requires 110,150 signatures.

Instead, unqualified parties invariably use the independent candidate petition, since the independent candidate petition is so much easier (only 2,000 signatures for statewide office). Minnesota lets candidates who use the independent procedure choose a partisan label, such as “Green” or “Libertarian” or “Independence.” Then, if the group polls 5% for a statewide candidate, it becomes a qualified party, without ever having had to do the statewide new party petition.

The bills change the new party petition deadline from mid-July to mid-May, and also make it illegal for a group to circulate the petition in an odd year. It would be very helpful if activists in Minnesota would ask the Secretary of State to amend his bills to lower the number of signatures needed, since he is shrinking the amount of time available, and since the 5% standard (having never been used) is obviously too difficult.

On March 28, the North Carolina House tentatively passed H91, which lets people register as late as the Saturday before election day, at early voting sites.

On March 22, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Il.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) introduced S936. It is called the “Fair Elections Now Act.” It provides for public funding for congressional candidates. It supposedly is modeled on the Maine and Arizona “Clean Elections” Laws. However, unlike the Maine and Arizona laws, S936 discriminates in favor of Democratic and Republican candidates, and against all others. If one is a Democrat or Republican, one only needs 2/3rds as many qualifying $5 contributions to qualify for public funding as all others need.

It is difficult to understand how Durbin and Specter can include such a provision, when the voters elected two independents to the U.S. Senate last November.