SB 84 passed the Missouri State Senate on March 30. It repairs a drafting error in the state’s ballot access reform bill passed back in 1993. The intent of the 1993 law was to let parties petition for qualified status, and only then would they be required to choose their nominees, in convention. But due to an error back in 1993, the law excluded the right of such a party to nominate for president, unless it had listed candidates for presidential elector on the petition. SB 84 fixes the problem, and deletes the requirement that the electors be listed.

HB2399, which would move the primary from September to August, and also move the deadline for independent candidates from June to May, has not advanced, and is considered dead.

SB1205, which makes it easier for a new party to get on the ballot in mid-term years, and which has already passed the Senate, also passed the House Education Committee today. Now it goes to the House Judiciary Committee.

The Washington legislature failed to pass SB 5745 by the deadline, so it is dead. It would have cleaned up the technical errors in the “top-two” initiative that passed last year. The initiative, I-872, limits the general election ballot (for congress, state office and partisan county office) to only the two top vote-getters from the primary. I-872 passed despite opposition from the state’s minor parties. But I-872 is internally contradictory, due to major drafting errors.

The Washington legislature is empowered to alter the language of initiatives, and SB 5745 would have eliminated the errors in the initiative. Because the bill died, Washington faces the future with an election law that is impossibly muddled. The Secretary of State will now draft interim rules, which may or may not provide for minor party ballot access in the November election. There are partisan county elections in November 2005 in some counties of Washington state, so this will be addressed fairly soon.