On April 25, the Vermont House passed S.270, the National Popular Vote Plan. The vote was 77-35. When the bill had passed the Senate earlier, the vote had been 22-6. On April 30, Governor Jim Douglas, a Republican, said he was not enthusiastic about the bill, but that he hasn’t decided whether to sign it or veto it. In any event, the bill passed by over two-thirds in each House, so if he does veto it, it may still become law.

This commentary by Dan Tokaji, who has an election law blog, about the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Indiana photo voter-ID case, is well worth reading.

On April 30, a poll sponsored by MSNBC and the Wall Street Journal was released. If the Democratic nominee were Barack Obama, the November results are: Obama 46%, McCain 43%, undecided 6%, other 5%. This poll didn’t list any “other” candidates. See here for more results from that same poll.

The Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE) has a web page, www.cofoe.org. The minutes of the 2008 board meeting are now posted. The meeting was held March 2, 2008, in New York city. COFOE has existed since 1985 and is a loose coalition of the nation’s nationally-organized minor parties, plus other organizations that also support tolerant ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates. COFOE raises money to help get ballot access lawsuits filed.

The Iowa legislature ended its 2007-2008 session on April 26. That session had various interesting election law bills, but none of them passed. Democrats control both Houses of the legislature and hold the Governorship, but they did not pass the National Popular Vote plan bill, SF 2008. Other bills that failed to move are:

SF 246, which would have required the order of parties to be rotated on the ballot.

SF 426, which would have eliminated ballot access petitions for candidates for township office (current law requires 10 signatures, but the bill would have said only a declaration of candidacy is needed).

HF 155, which would have let any registered voter serve as an election board member. Current law says only members of one of the two largest political parties may serve.

University of West Virginia Law Professor Bob Bastress is seeking one of the two Democratic Party nominations for State Supreme Court Justice, in the May 6 primary. Bastress has been a professor there for 30 years and has done many pro bono constitutional lawsuits during those years. On April 9, he was endorsed by the Charleston Gazette, the state’s largest newspaper. The members of the State Bar have ranked him as tied for the top, in a survey of all 4,600 members that evaluated all the candidates on legal ability, reasoning ability, impartiality, diligence, courtesy, and integrity.

Bastress has filed 6 lawsuits against various election laws that make ballot access difficult for minor parties and independent candidates, during the last 28 years, and he has won 4 of them. He represented John Anderson, the Libertarian Party, and the Citizens Party, in 1980, when his lawsuit struck down the law that circulators could not work outside their home magisterial district. In 2003, he won a case for the Libertarian Party against a state law that said circulators must tell signers that if the signer signs the petition, they cannot vote in the primary. In 2000, he won a case for the Constitution Party that struck down the filing fee for declared write-in candidates. He has tried twice to overturn the May petition deadline for minor party and independent candidates (for office other than president), but those lawsuits did not win. See his campaign webpage at www.bastressforjustice.com. The race has four candidates, with two to be nominated.

Any voter who is registered “Independent”, or as a member of a party that is not ballot-qualified, is free to choose a Democratic primary ballot this year in West Virginia.

The New York Times of April 29 has this feature story on Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers, who is being forced into retirement after 40 years due to term limits. The New York Times told a lot of interesting anecdotes about Chambers, but did not mention that in 1988, he registered as a member of the New Alliance Party and won its primary, to be the party nominee for U.S. Senate. Not surprisingly, he won the NAP nomination unanimously, and as the NAP candidate in November, polled 1.55% of the vote.

He was also running for re-election to the legislature in 1988. The Nebraska legislature is non-partisan, but the election law said he could not be on the ballot for two offices simultaneously. So, Chambers ran as a write-in candidate for re-election to the legislature, and he kept his seat, winning with 2,084 write-ins. Therefore, one could honestly say that the New Alliance Party had its own state legislator that year, since he was a registered member of that party.

The New Alliance Party existed as a nationally-organized party from 1982 until 1994. Its presidential candidate in 1988 and 1992 was Lenora Fulani. The party dissolved itself in 1994 so that its members could help create the Patriot Party. That, in turn, was dissolved in 1995 so that its members could become part of the new Reform Party. Today the old nucleus of the New Alliance Party is organized as CUIP, a non-partisan group that promotes the interests of independent voters.

The Scranton, Pennsylvania Times-Tribune has this story, about the fact that 15,000 write-ins were cast for various offices in Lackawanna County in the April 22 primary. Among other results, voters chose a Republican nominee for the 113th State House district by write-in votes. Even stranger, that nominee is the current incumbent Democratic state representative. He is Frank A. Shimkus. He tried to run for re-election the normal way this year, but his petition to be on the Democratic primary was challenged. He also ran as a write-in candidate in the Democratic primary, but his ballot-listed opponent defeated him in that primary. Thus, the November election will be a contest between two registered Democrats.

On April 22, Emerson French, a high school student in Tempe, Arizona, filed the paper work to launch two statewide initiatives. One would implement Condorcet Voting in federal and state elections in Arizona, and the other would make it easier to qualify a new party for the ballot. Condorcet Voting, which virtually requires computers, provides that voters rank each candidate. The vote-counting system runs a two-way race between each possible pair of candidates; the winner is the candidate who wins all those hypothetical two-way matches.

Each initiative needs 153,365 valid signatures, due by July 3, so these initiatives are unlikely to qualify for the ballot. French says he hopes that supporters of these ideas will notice that the initiative has been pre-filed and will support them. Since French is 17 years old, he is not permitted to circulate his own initiatives, until he turns 18 in May 2008.

On April 28, Zogby released new general election polls that list Bob Barr and Ralph Nader along with the major party contenders. If Obama is the Democratic nominee, the results are: Obama 45%, McCain 42%, Bob Barr 3%, Ralph Nader 1%, undecided/other 8%.

If Clinton is the Democrat, the results are: McCain 44%, Clinton 34%, Barr 4%, Nader 3%, undecided/other 16%. Thanks to ThirdPartyWatch.