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.
On February 11, attorneys for Ohio state government said they will drop their appeal of the January 7, 2014 order of a U.S. District Court that put Ohio’s minor parties on the 2014 ballot. When the state had appealed that court order to the Sixth Circuit, the state had also asked for expedited handling, but the Sixth Circuit had then refused to expedite the case. That seemed to be a clue that the Sixth Circuit agreed with the U.S. District Court.
The case, Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, will undergo further action in the future, over whether the new ballot access law passed late in 2013 is constitutional for elections in years beyond 2014. But it is now settled that the new ballot access restrictions will not interfere with the 2014 election.
On February 10, Bill Bloomfield announced that he will not be an independent candidate for U.S. House, in California’s 33rd district. This is the district in which veteran Congressman Henry Waxman is not running for re-election. In 2012, Bloomfield was the only independent candidate for any partisan office in California who managed to get on the general election ballot even though there was at least one Republican and one Democrat in the race. In the election, though, Bloomfield lost to Waxman, despite outspending him. See this story about Bloomfield’s announcement.
On February 10, the Arizona House Rules Committee passed HB 2196 by a vote of 5-2. This is the bill that repeals the 2013 omnibus election law bill. That 2013 bill made it very difficult for members of qualified minor parties to get on their own party’s primary ballot.
The Arizona House Judiciary Committee had also passed this bill, on January 30, so now the bill goes to the House floor.