On March 21, the voters of Sangamon County, Illinois, voted on an advisory question. It asked them if they would like to change the Illinois open primary system from a system in which the voter’s choice of party primary ballot is public, to a system in which the voter chooses a party primary in the secrecy of the voting booth. 80% of the voters voted for the secret type of open primary. The vote has no legal effect, but Sangamon County legislators will introduce a bill to enforce the idea.
Puerto Ricans who are working to get a voice in U.S. presidential elections are about to file their case against the current U.S. policy with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States. Puerto Ricans are likely to win in that forum.
California AB 3063 would allow elections officials to refrain from printing primary ballots for a party, if no one filed to appear on that party’s primary ballot. The bill was probably introduced as a reaction to the Natural Law Party situation. No one ran in its primary for any office in 2004, and no one is running this year. But since it is a qualified party, elections officials must still print up primary ballots for it. The bill would provide that if no one filed to appear on the primary ballot, but 100 registered members of the party signed a petition saying that they want to nominate someone by write-ins, then primary ballots would still be printed.
California AB 3063 would allow elections officials to refrain from printing primary ballots for a party, if no one filed to appear on that party’s primary ballot. The bill was probably introduced as a reaction to the Natural Law Party situation. No one ran in its primary for any office in 2004, and no one is running this year. But since it is a qualified party, elections officials must still print up primary ballots for it. The bill would provide that if no one filed to appear on the primary ballot, but 100 registered members of the party signed a petition saying that they want to nominate someone by write-ins, then primary ballots would still be printed.
In February 2006, a campaign was launched to, in effect, force the U.S. to switch to a direct popular vote for president (see March 1 2006 Ballot Access News story). At the time that story was written, only in Illinois was there a bill to put the idea into practice. A bill has now been introduced in California, AB 2948. The chief sponsor is Assemblyman Tom Umberg, chair of the Assembly Elections Committee. The bill has support from both Democrats and Republicans.
