On March 21, the New Hampshire House Election Law Committee passed SB 36. It abolishes the straight-ticket device and gives New Hampshire an office-group ballot format (as opposed to party column format). The bill had already passed the State Senate.
A bill will be introduced in the Idaho State Senate on Monday, March 26, to create a system in which voters register into parties. The bill will not let members of parties vote in any primary other than that voter’s own party. However, the bill will require that parties permit independents to vote in any primary.
On March 15, HB 358 was introduced in the Alabama House to move the presidential primary from June to February. A bill to do this had passed last year, but because it had a technical error in it, the state didn’t forward it to the U.S. Justice Department for pre-clearance under the Voting Rights Act. Therefore, the 2006 change is null and void. The error was that the 2006 bill accidentally moved the primary for all office, not just president, from June to February. The new bill, HB 358, will keep the June primary for all office except president.
Washington state law gives a committee the power to set the state’s presidential primary date. That committee met on March 23, but failed to agree on moving the primary from May to February. The Committee cannot act unless at least six members agree. The five Republicans voted for a February 5 primary, but the 4 Democrats voted for a March 18 primary. This produced a stalemate, so the primary remains in May. Some legislative leaders want to cancel it and use caucuses instead.
On March 22, Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale filed a lawsuit in state court to obtain a place on this year’s Democratic primary, which is held in August. He has been elected as the Democratic nominee in every election since 1975. But this year the party refused to accept him as a candidate, since the party says Dale supported President Bush in 2004. Nothing in the Mississippi election code gives a political party the authority to evaluate the political actions of individuals who wish to run in party primaries. The case is Dale v Mississippi Democratic Party, 7th Circuit Court, 251-07-268. Thanks to Steve Rankin for this news.
