On March 27, HB2353 passed the Arkansas Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee. It reduces the number of signatures for a new party to 10,000 signatures, but shrinks the number of days to collect the signatures from 150 days to 60 days. The Green Party has been asking legislators to vote against it, since even if the bill doesn’t pass, the requirement will be 10,000 (due to the winning lawsuit last year).
In a few days, Maine House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree will introduce a bill to legalize fusion (“fusion” means that two parties are permitted to jointly nominate the same candidate). Pingree comes from a prominent family; her mother, Chellie Pingree, was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate from Maine in 2002, and was thereafter head of Common Cause.
On March 26, the Maryland House passed HB 1434 unanimously. It moves the state’s primary in presidential election years from March to February 12. Thanks to the commenter who helped make this post more accurate.
New York state is holding three special legislative elections on March 27, in the 16th, 61st and 62nd districts. The 16th district is on Long Island and the other two are in New York city. They are to replace one Assemblymember who died, and two Assemblymembers who resigned last month to take other elected positions.
On March 26, the Idaho Senate State Affairs Committee introduced S1244, the newest attempt to close Idaho’s primaries. Existing law lets voters choose a party’s primary ballot in the privacy of the voting booth on primary election day. S1244 would provide for partisan registration. If enacted, registered members of a party could only vote in that party’s primary, but independent voters could choose any party’s primary ballot. Parties would not have the discretion to bar independents from voting in their primary.
Although the Secretary of State supports this bill, the County Recorders (who administer elections) do not. No one yet knows if the bill will pass this year.
Since most voters are not likely to go to the bother of re-registering (assuming they are already registered to vote), the bill provides that they can choose their party affiliation at the polls, in the May 2008 primary.
