Colorado law says a major party can nominate anyone it wishes, regardless of how long the candidate has been a member of that party. But qualified minor parties cannot nominate someone who has been a member of another party at any time during the preceding year. The Colorado Libertarian Party is challenging this disparate treatment in state court. The case is pending in the State Court of Appeals. However, it appears somewhat likely that the Secretary of State will address this problem in his omnibus election law bill, SB 83, in the next few days. If the legislature cures the problem, the lawsuit will be dismissed.

Montana SB 290 (the National Popular Vote plan for presidential elections) passed the State Senate Administration Committee on February 5, by a vote of 9-2. The committee has 6 Democrats and 5 Republicans. Both “no” votes were cast by Republicans. It is significant that most of the Republicans on the Committee voted for the bill. Since the Committee has eleven members and the Senate has only 50 members, it is likely that the bill will now pass the Senate. The sponsor, Senator Rick Laible, is a Republican.

Oklahoma HB 1790 was amended on February 7 to move the presidential primary from February 5 to February 2. HB 1790 is authored by John Trebilcock (R-Broken Arrow) but the amendment was the idea of Trebor Worthen (R-Oklahoma City).

Moving the presidential primary by only three days sounds peculiar, but so many other states are expected to vote on February 5, that the Oklahoma legislators seem to feel Oklahoma would be ignored if it had its primary on the same day as so many other states, whereas it would get a great deal of attention if it were on a day with only one other presidential primary (South Carolina’s Republican primary will also be on Feb. 2). Thanks to The Green Papers for this news.