LPAR Chair Michael Pakko reports the petition drive now has 6,489 signatures. 10,000 valid signatures are needed by February 13, 2024 to return the Libertarian Party to the ballot in Arkansas in 2024 for all partisan elections in the state. That means that the petition drive is now half completed or nearly half completed.
On June 26, the Maine House passed LD 769 by 104-35. It eases the definition of a qualified party. Current law says it is a group that has 5,000 registrants (if it is a new party), but if it has been on the ballot at least four years then it must have 10,000 registrants.
The bill makes the definition simpler. It says a qualified party is one with 5,000 registrants, whether it is new or old.
June 28 Update: According to an office of the Maine legislature, this legislation will be considered by the Maine Senate sometime yet this year, at a currently unknown date.
On Tuesday, June 27, 2023, the US Supreme Court issued its opinion in the Moore v. Harper case out of North Carolina. The issue was whether the NC Supreme Court went beyond its authority in rejecting the NC legislature’s US House redistricting plan after the 2020 census due to unconstitutional pro-Republican Party gerrymandering.
Here is the SCOTUS blog post analyzing the decision:
Here is the link to the opinion:
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-1271_3f14.pdf
Here is a link to a FairVote analysis on the results of the June 20, 2023 Democratic Party Primary for the Arlington County, Virginia Board of Supervisors that used multiwinner Ranked Choice Voting. The vote transfer process is illustrated about halfway down the webpage:
https://fairvote.org/analyzing-results-from-arlingtons-first-proportional-rcv-election/
On Sunday, June 25, the last day of the Oregon legislative session, the legislature passed HB 2004. It asks the voters if they wish to use ranked choice voting for federal and state primaries and general elections, except legislative elections would not be covered. Here is the text.
