This Hendrix College Poll for the Arkansas gubernatorial race included all four parties that are on the Arkansas ballot. The results show that either the Libertarian Party or the Green Party might poll the needed 3% to retain ballot status, depending on which candidates the major parties nominate. The major parties choose their nominees in the May 20 primary.
According to this story, the Vermont legislature has again amended SB 86. The original bill, which passed the Senate last year, moved the independent deadline from June to August. The House Committee revised the bill to move the deadline in the opposite direction, from June to May. But the newspaper story seems to indicate the bill will not move the deadline at all.
Vermont is tied with Illinois for having the nation’s earliest independent presidential petition deadline. Moving it even earlier would certainly have been unconstitutional.
On April 3, President Obama signed HR 2019. It eliminates public funding for the presidential conventions of parties that polled at least 5% of the vote for President in the last election.
The only party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, that ever received this type of public funding was the Reform Party in 2000. The program had existed starting in 1976.
On April 2, the Republican National Committee narrowed down the list of cities in which the 2016 Republican national convention will be held. They are Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, and Las Vegas. The party eliminated Columbus and Phoenix. See this story. The story also says that the Republican Party wants the convention center in the city it chooses to have the flexibility to host the party during any part of June and the first half of July. The story says the last possible date the convention will start is July 18, 2016.
The Iowa Constitution says that persons convicted of “infamous crimes” cannot register to vote or run for state office, unless they are pardoned by the Governor. On April 9, the Iowa Supreme Court will hold arguments in Chiodo v The Section 43.24 Panel, 14-0553. The issue is whether Tony Bisignano should remain on the Democratic June primary ballot for State Senate, district 17.
Bisignano was convicted of second-offense drunk driving in January 2014. One of his opponents, Ned Chiodo, argues that therefore, Bisignano is not eligible to run and should be removed from the ballot. See this story.
This Boston Globe column suggests that the Democratic and Republican Parties of Massachusetts should cease keeping candidates off their own party’s primary ballots. Party rules for both major parties in Massachusetts say that candidates cannot petition for a spot on a statewide primary unless those candidates get at least 15% of the vote at state conventions. The Massachusetts election law has no such provision, but both federal and state courts in Massachusetts have upheld the ability of the major parties to the 15% rule. Democrats invented it in the early 1980’s and Republicans later copied the idea.