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.

Today, the Montana Supreme Court finally issued its explanation of why Rick Jore, Constitution Party nominee for the Montana legislature, was not actually elected last November. Back in December, that Court had unseated Jore, but had not explained why. The March 21 decision is 31 pages long, and says that when a voter fills in a bubble next to one candidate’s name, and then makes an “X” through that filled-in bubble and then fills in another bubble next to a rival candidate’s name, it is impossible to understand that voter’s intent. The vote was 6-1. The dissenting justice stressed that the local elections officials had unanimously agreed that they could understand voter intent in such a situation.

On March 18, the North Dakota Senate Government & Veterans Affairs Committee amended HB 1433, to provide for a way for a party to remain on the ballot in a mid-term year. The bill, as amended, lets a party remain on the ballot if it polls 5% for Secretary of State or Attorney General. Under current law, it doesn’t matter how many votes a party gets in a mid-term year; if it’s a new party, it gets removed from the ballot no matter how well it does. That’s because under the old law, a party must poll 5% for Governor or President to remain on the ballot, and those offices aren’t up in mid-term years.

In the past, North Dakota elected all its statewide state offices in presidential years, but starting in 2006, it elects half of them in midterm years, including Secretary of State and Attorney General.