California State Senator Dick Ackerman has introduced SB 293. It would amend the existing law that requires a qualified party to notify the Secretary of State of its presidential and vice-presidential nominees by late August. The bill only applies to the Republican Party and is automatically repealed after 2008. It extends the deadline to September 4. It also asks the Republican Party state chair to make a preliminary certification if he or she feels it is obvious who will be nominated.
Bills have been introduced in both houses of the Alabama legislature to provide that write-in candidates must file a write-in declaration of candidacy, in order to have their write-ins tallied. They are SB69 and HB332. Currently, all write-ins in Alabama are valid and must be counted, but in practice, such write-ins generally don’t get canvassed. In 2006 the Alabama Secretary of State for the first time included all the write-ins in the official state returns, but she didn’t tally them. Anyone who wanted to know how many write-in votes were received by, for example, Loretta Nall (Libertarian candidate for Governor) had to add up her tally from each of the 67 counties. Presumably, if these bills pass, the Secretary of State will then tally the write-in totals for declared write-in candidates.
Unfortunately, the bills require the write-in declaration of candidacy to be filed 90 days before the election. That is poor policy; one of the chief reasons write-ins are allowed, is to take advantage of last-minute events, and a 90-day cut-off defeats part of the purpose of having write-in space on ballots.
On March 28, the Connecticut Joint Government Administration & Elections Committee passed HB 6251, a bill to let voters register on election day.
On March 28, the Maryland State Senate passed SB634, the “National Popular Vote Plan” for presidential elections.
On March 27, the Montana House Administration tabled SB 117. This is the bill that had already passed the Senate, which would have provided that when a candidate is sued because his or opponent wants a recount, the government pays the court costs, regardless of which way the recount goes. The bill was retroactive and would have saved Rep. Rick Jore (the lone Constitution Party state legislator) from having to repay $18,000 court costs from the 2004 recount.
The same committee also tabled HB 760 on March 18. It would have instituted a “Clean Elections” system of public financing of candidates for state office.
