On May 29, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed HB 487. It moves the presidential primary from March to February 5.

On May 24, the city council of Cary, North Carolina, voted 4-3 to use Instant-Runoff Voting for its city council elections on October 9. Four seats are up, two district and two at-large.

Cary’s official slogan is “The Technology Town of North Carolina.” It is near Raleigh. The town is responding to a bill passed last year that permits any ten cities or counties use IRV to elect their own officials. Cary expects to save $62,000, since it will not need to hold an old-fashioned run-off in November 2007.

As has been noted, the Illinois Senate had earlier passed a bill drastically easing ballot access for minor party candidates as well as fixing the constitutional infirmities with independent candidate ballot access. But the House had passed a bill that only fixes the constitutional problems with independent candidate ballot access. It is looking increasingly likely that the House approach will prevail.

The Illinois legislature is foolish not to fix problems with minor party ballot access. Existing law says the nominee of an unqualified party, and an independent, running for US House, needs only 5,000 signatures in years following redistricting. But in all other years, they need a petition of 5% of the last vote cast, which is sometimes as high as 14,000 or 15,000 signatures. It is likely that a new lawsuit will be filed, arguing that if 5,000 signatures is enough in years ending in the digit “2″, then there can be no strong state interest in having almost triple that number of signatures in other election years.

On May 25, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney participated in a 23-minute interview on Radio Station WBAI. The hosts asked her about the possibility that she may seek the Green Party presidential nomination in 2008. She said, “With the failure of the Democratic Congress to repeal the Patriot Act, the Secret Evidence Act, the Military Tribunals Act, I have to seriously question my relationship with the Democratic Party. The idea has not been ruled out. All the current Democrats running for president support the principle of potential military action against Iran; none of them is for impeachment of the President. They can’t speak for me. I am open to a lot of ideas in 2008.” Thanks to Darcy Richardson for this news.

On May 30, the Massachusetts Joint Election Law Committee will hear HB646 and SB446. Those bills provide for election-day registration. Eight states already have election-day registration: Maine, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. Also, North Dakota in effect has election-day registration, since it doesn’t have voter registration at all.

The Delaware House Administration Committee will soon hear HB 177, which would ban fusion. The bill has 10 co-sponsors, including legislative leaders from both major parties. The Delaware legislature sits until June 30. Two ballot-qualified parties in Delaware, the Working Families Party and the Independent Party, are fighting the bill.

The Georgia Green Party launched its statewide petition drive in Athens, Georgia, on May 5, and collected 500 signatures the first day. The party needs 44,089 valid signatures by July 8, 2008.

No Green Party candidate has ever appeared on the Georgia ballot for a federal or state office, with the party label. The statewide petition is 1% of the number of registered voters, and all district and county petitions are 5% of the number of registered voters in that district or county. The only other states in which the word “Green Party” have never appeared on the ballot for a state or federal office are Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming.

The South Carolina Republican Party administers its own presidential primary with no help from state or local elections officials. Therefore, the party is free to set the date whenever it wants. The state chairman of the party has hinted to the press that the state party will move the primary so that it is earlier than January 29. The South Carolina Republican Party’s goal is to have the 2nd earliest state presidential primary in the nation (after New Hampshire). Since Florida’s presidential primary will be on January 29, that will probably propel an earlier South Carolina Republican primary. Under national Republican Party rules, the state party has until September 4, 2007 to settle on the primary date.

The Tennessee Constitution, Green and Libertarian Parties are likely to file a federal lawsuit in June 2007, challenging that state’s procedures for getting a party on the ballot. Tennessee’s petition is so difficult, no group has used it since 1968. It requires a petition signed by 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote. The wording says the signers are members. The deadline is not set forth in the law, but election administrators say it is approximately four months before the primary. Groups that have tried to complete this petition, and failed, include the Constitution Party, the Reform Party, the Populist Party of the 1980’s, and the Green Party.

The only states which have had no qualified parties on the ballot (other than the Democratic and Republican Parties) in the last 30 years are Tennessee and New Jersey. Also, Georgia has had no third parties on the ballot who were qualified for district office in over 30 years, but several on the ballot who were qualified for statewide office, including the Libertarian Party continuously since 1988.

The Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE) holds its annual Board meeting on Saturday, June 16, at 10 a.m., in New York city. COFOE is 22 years old. It is a loose-knit coalition of the nation’s nationally-organized minor parties, plus other organizations that care about ballot access. This year, the chief topic on the agenda will probably be Oklahoma. Observers to the meeting are expected from the Working Families Party and Unity08.

COFOE is financed by membership dues. Members contribute $25 per year, and in return receive a free subscription to Ballot Access News. COFOE income, though relatively small, has helped finance ballot access lawsuits. When these lawsuits win, the attorney on COFOE’s side receives attorneys’ fees from the states. Then the attorney rebates back to COFOE any contributions from COFOE.

Unfortunately, even though two important ballot access lawsuits that had been backed by COFOE won last year, neither of the states involved (Ohio and Illinois) has paid COFOE’s attorneys their attorneys’ fees yet. Ohio says the Secretary of State’s budget is empty and the attorney must wait for the new fiscal year, which starts July 2007. Illinois admits it owes attorneys fees but is fighting over the amount, a fight which may take months to resolve. In the meantime, COFOE’s treasury is almost empty. This is a serious problem. COFOE intends to arrange an amicus curiae brief in the Pennsylvania ballot access case soon to be filed in the U.S. Supreme Court. Also, COFOE has already committed to helping launch a lawsuit against North Carolina’s law on how independent candidates for US House get on the ballot (the law is so severe, no independent candidate for US House has ever appeared on a government-printed ballot in North Carolina).

Please consider joining COFOE. One can send a check made out to COFOE for $25 and postally mailing it to PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147. Or, one can use PayPal. If you wish to use PayPal, contact Richard Winger at richardwinger@yahoo.com for instructions. As a member, you will receive Ballot Access News in the postal mail. The June 1 issue is in the mail now, and will be of special interest to anyone who is interested in Oklahoma.