Original blog posts at Ballot Access News by Richard Winger. Reposted to IPR by Paulie.
South Carolina Bill for Registration by Party
Eight South Carolina Representatives have introduced H3140, a bill to set up partisan registration in that state. The sponsors are Garry Smith (R-Simpsonville), Dan Hamilton (R-Taylors), Wendy Nanney (R-Greenville), Eric Bedingfield (R-Mauldin), James Harrison (R-Columbia), William Wylie (R-Simpsonville), Michael Pitts (R-Laurens), and Jim Merrill (R-Charleston).
In the last twenty years, the only two states that have added registration by party are Rhode Island and Utah.
Pennsylvania Ballot Access Bill Has 7 Sponsors in Senate
The Pennsylvania “Voters Choice Act”, which improves ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates, has not yet been introduced in the Pennsylvania legislature. However, the Senate sponsor of the proposed bill, Senator Mike Folmer (R-Lebanon) has already identified six other Senators who have said they will co-sponsor the bill. They include one Democrat and five Republicans.
Washington Secretary of State Asks Legislature for New Definitions for “Political Party”
Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed has written a proposed bill that clarifies some problems with the existing “top-two” primary system. The bill defines a qualified major party to be a group that polled at least 1% for president in the last presidential election.
Existing law says a qualified major party is one that polled 5% for any statewide office at the last election in which a statewide office was on the ballot. That existing definition is no longer workable, however, because the “top-two” initiative passed by the voters in November 2004 says that parties don’t have nominees any longer, except for president. Under the existing law, there wouldn’t be any qualified major parties in Washington state after the U.S. Senate election in November 2010, because there would be no party nominees in that election.
The proposed bill also defines qualified minor party to be a group that submits a petition of 100 voters by the first Monday in March, asking that the group be recognized as a party.
Washington state primary and general election ballots, under the “top-two” system, give each candidate a chance to say which party he or she prefers. Assuming this proposed bill passes, candidates will not be able to say they prefer just any group; they can only say they prefer a qualified major party or a qualified minor party. In the 2008 elections, some candidates said they preferred “parties” that clearly aren’t organizations, such as the Salmon Yoga Party or the GOP Party.
One might wonder what difference it makes for a group to be a qualified major party. The answer is that qualified major parties get their own presidential primary, and they are permitted to elect party officers in the September primary. Also their presidential nominee is put on the November ballot automatically with no petition needed.
South Carolina Bill to Ban Fusion
A South Carolina bill to ban fusion (the ability of two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate) has been introduced. It is H 3067. The sponsors are six Republican legislators, including Majority Leader Kenneth Bingham and Whip Jim Merrill. Republicans have a majority in both houses of the South Carolina legislature. The other sponsors are Representatives Alan Clemmons, Joan Brady, Michael Pitts, and Bill Wylie.
Bills to abolish fusion in South Carolina have made some headway in the past, but have never passed all the way through the legislature.
Utah Bill Deletes Requirement that Independent Presidential Candidates Must File in Person
Utah has been the only state that required independent candidates for president to file in person, in the office of the Lieutenant Governor, in order to be on the ballot. Senate Bill 27, requested by the state elections office, deletes that requirement, and says such a candidate may designate an agent to appear at the office instead.
SB 27 also sets an independent presidential petition deadline of August 15. The legislature had accidentally repealed that deadline in 1994, so the state elections office had been accepting such petitions until early September, in the absense of any law on the subject.
SB 27 is an omnibus election law bill with many other changes. A final element of the bill requires write-in presidential candidates to file in person, or have an agent file in person. Previously write-in presidential candidates could mail in the paperwork. Since Utah doesn’t require a write-in presidential candidate to submit any candidates for presidential elector, normally Utah gets quite a few declared write-in candidates for president, most of whom have no support in the state and end up with a tally of “zero” write-ins. The in-person requirement in the bill (either the candidate or an agent of the candidate) will probably decrease the number of declared write-in presidential candidates in Utah, if the bill passes.
Kentucky Bill to Let Independent Voters Vote in Partisan Primaries
Kentucky has registration by party, and does not allow independents to vote in party primaries. Although (under a U.S. Supreme Court decision) any party with a primary is free to override state law and let independents vote in its primary, neither the Democratic nor Republican Party currently allows independents to vote in its primaries.
Kentucky Representative Jimmy Higdon (R-Lebanon) has introduced HB 17, which says that independent voters may vote in any party primary. The bill does not acknowledge any role for political parties to make their own decision about that.
Delaware Bill Lets Voters Change Parties Easier
Delaware has one of the nation’s most rigid laws on when and how voters may change political parties. Current law does not permit voters to change parties in the zone that is 90 days prior to any primary, or the zone that is 90 days prior to a general election. Senator David Sokola (D-Newark) has introduced SB 9, to reduce the zone to only 20 days before a primary or a general election.