On April 29, Napa, California city councilman Harry Martin announced he had changed his registration from “Democrat” to “Green”.
5
LD 329, which makes it easier for a qualified party to gain and retain that status in Maine, passed the House on April 28.
The Office of Security & Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has published its report on the U.S. election of November 2, 2004. The OSCE is the office that is supposed to enforce the Helsinki Accords. The report is disappointingly bland. It mentions many problems in U.S. election administration, including restrictive ballot access laws, but it does not actually criticize or condemn the U.S. for any of these problems. The only actual condemnation of the United States is its failure to let OSCE observers watch the polling process in most states.
On April 19, the Governor of Hawaii signed HB119, which eases the requirement that every signature on a petition must include the signer’s social security number. Now only the last 4 digits need be included.
On April 22, Washington’s Governor signed HB 1447, which lets certain cities use Instant-Runoff Voting for city elections if they wish. The city most likely to do this soon is Vancouver.