Nebraska State Senator John Murante (R-Gretna) has introduced an omnibus election law bill, LB 1048. Among other provisions, it says a ballot-qualified party can dissolve itself if it files notice by November 1 of the year before an election. This provision is surely part of the bill because Americans Elect qualified for party status in Nebraska (and many other states) and then decided not to run any candidates.
New York city ballots in 2014 and future years will be easier to read than they were in 2013. See this story, which says the Board found a way to increase the font size of the names of candidates and parties. Thanks to Michael Drucker for the link.
On February 7, a District of Columbia Superior Court refused to order the D.C. Board of Elections to list the office of Attorney General on primary ballots. The primary is on April 1. See this story.
In 2010 the voters had passed a charter amendment saying the office would become elective, starting in 2014. The wording on the ballot said the first election would be in 2014, but the actual charter amendment (which wasn’t printed on the ballot because it was far too lengthy) just said the first election would be after January 1, 2014. Years after the charter amendment passed, the city council passed an ordinance saying the first election will be in 2018.
As the story says, it is still possible there will be an Attorney General election in November 2014, because a bill pending in the City Council provides that all candidates for that office would run in November 2014. Party labels would be on the ballot, but there would be no party nominees. The charter amendment says the Attorney General’s election will be a partisan election, so the bill itself, if it passes, may be challenged in court.
Gapers Block, an on-line news source for Chicago, has this interesting article by Phil Huckelberry about the upcoming March 18, 2014 Illinois primary. Because the Democratic primary, at least for the important statewide offices (Governor and U.S. Senator) is an unexciting event, it appears many Democratic-leaning groups may encourage Democrats to vote in the Illinois Republican primary.
Illinois does not have registration by party, so it fits the classic definition of an open primary state. Some of the definitions of types of primary in the article don’t correspond to that vocabulary, however. In Illinois, the press seems to think that an open primary is only a primary in which a voter’s choice as to which primary ballot to choose is a secret. In Illinois, a voter must publicly ask for one particular party’s primary ballot at the polling place. Therefore the Illinois press doesn’t describe the existing Illinois system as an open primary.
The Feb. 24, 2014 edition of the weekly “The Nation” will include this call to arms by the editors, pledging to support efforts to reform election laws and practices in the U.S., including better ballot access laws. Thanks to Independent Political Report for the link.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer has this story, on the extent to which the Libertarian Party is growing stronger in Ohio.