On February 12, California Congressman Gary Miller announced he will not run for re-election this year. He is a Republican elected in the 31st district in 2012. The 31st district is predominantly Democratic, but Miller only won because in the top-two primary, four Democrats split the Democratic vote and allowed the two Republicans to place first and second. See this story. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
According to this story, the new American Party of South Carolina, a centrist party, has a bigger student group at Winthrop University than either of the two major parties do. Winthrop University is in Rock Hill, and has existed since the 19th century, and is considered the best-ranked university in the state. Thanks to David Gillespie for the link.
The print edition of The New York Times of February 12 has this editorial, calling on all states to enable ex-felons to register to vote.
There are three fairly large groups of legally competent adult citizens who are not permitted to vote freely in parts of the United States: (1) ex-felons; (2) residents of territories (and, to a lesser extent, residents of the District of Columbia); (3) supporters of minor party and independent candidates.
On February 10, the Arizona Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB 1270 by 6-3. SB 1270 is identical to HB 2196. Both bills repeal the 2013 omnibus election law bill. The 2013 bill made it far more difficult for members of qualified minor parties to get on their own party’s primary ballots.
The two repeal bills (one in each House) have now passed all committees, so it seems likely they will pass into law soon.
On February 11, the Tennessee House passed HB 1727. It sets up a procedure for a previously unqualified party to get on the ballot in a special congressional or legislative election. It also lowers the vote test for a party that is only qualified in one county to remain on the ballot, from 20% to 5%. And it lowers the petition for a group that wants to be a party in just one county from 5% to 2.5%.
But it still retains the requirement that newly-qualifying statewide parties must submit a petition of 2.5% of the number of votes in the last gubernatorial election, which is over 40,000 signatures. See this story.
According to this story, Maine State Senator Tom Saviello may run for re-election this year as an independent. He was last elected as a Republican. He must decide before March 1. Thanks to Tom MacMillan for the link.