On January 31, the New Hampshire House Elections Law Committee will hold a hearing on HB 1385, which would lower the vote test for the definition of “party”, from a vote of 4% for Governor or US Senator, to a vote of 2%. It would also lower the number of signatures for statewide minor party and independent candidates from 3,000 to 2,000. The hearing is at 1 p.m. in room 308 of the Legislative Office Building.
On January 25, former Republican legislator Andrew Halcro announced that he will run for Governr of Alaska as an independent this year.
The Labor Party hope to finish its first-ever petition drive to qualify the party for a state ballot by February 1. The party is working on collecting 10,000 valid signatures in South Carolina. It made heavy progress on the three-day weekend January 14-16, and is pushing for another big weekend January 28-29. The Labor Party was formed nationally in 1990, but it has never before tried to qualify itself for the ballot in any state.
For some time, the Alaska Green Party has been in state court over the state’s definition of “party”. Recently, the state said it will remove the Green Party check-box from the new voter registration form. This has given the Green Party an excuse to ask for quick injunctive relief from the judge who has the lawsuit before him. He has indicated he will rule on whether to order the state to leave the Green Party on the form by February 8 or so.
To see the national vote total for each party in Canada’s January 23 election, see http://enr.elections.ca/National_e.aspx.
