by Wendy Underhill
State primary dates have gotten a great deal of legislative attention this year as states try to comply with the MOVE Act of 2009. The law’s intention is to protect the right to vote for military and overseas voters. Prior to MOVE, many overseas citizens were effectively disenfranchised because their absentee ballots didn’t arrive in time to be counted. Now, thanks to MOVE, states are required to transmit absentee ballots to overseas voters at least 45 days before any federal election, including primaries. A 2009 issue of NCSL’s elections newsletter, The Canvass, outlines the MOVE Act provisions and how they relate to state policy.
My colleague, Jennie Bowser, has been following MOVE Act bills. She reports that 10 states plus the District of Columbia had September primaries in 2010. Doing so again in 2012 would make it all but impossible to transmit ballots by September 22nd, 45 days before Election Day on November 6, 2012.
All 11 jurisdictions are noted below, along with recent legislation to fix the problem:
- Delaware
- Hawaii (HB 2397, passed in 2010, moves the primary to the 2nd Saturday in August)
- Maryland (HB 671, passed in 2011, moves the primary to the last Tuesday in June)
- Massachusetts
- Minnesota (SF 2251, passed in 2010, moves the primary to the 2nd Tuesday in August)
- New Hampshire
- New York
- Rhode Island
- Vermont (S 117, passed in 2010, moves the primary to the 4th Tuesday in August)
- Wisconsin
- DC (B 90, passed in 2011, moves the primary to the 1st Tuesday in April)
August primaries may be a problem, too. Bowser notes that “while it is conceivable that states with late August primaries could meet the 45-day window, some of them appear to be pushing their primaries earlier anyway.”
The states that had their 2010 primaries in mid-to-late August were:
- August 10th: Colorado, Connecticut
- August 17th: Washington, Wyoming
- August 24th: Alaska, Arizona, Florida
- August 28th: Louisiana
Among these eight, Colorado this year changed its primary to the first Tuesday in June (the bill is on the governor’s desk), and Washington has moved from the third to the first Tuesday in August. Proposals were introduced in Alaska, Arizona, and Connecticut, but all of these states have adjourned for 2011 without passing a primary date change.
For more on state primaries, including a catalog of the differrent types of primaries, see the May issue of NCSL’s The Canvass.
A rose from The Thicket to Jennie Bowser
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