September 22, 2004
Dear Judge Posner,
Regarding your decision today in Nader v. Keith:
You referred to the Libertarian Party getting on the Illinois ballot for president this year. The Libertarians only submitted 32,000 signatures this year. They would have been sitting ducks if the same challenge had been made to them, that was made to Nader. They breathed a huge sigh of relief when no one challenged them this year. They had been challenged successfully in Illinois in 1998 and unsuccessfully challenged in 2002 (in 2002 they got over 50,000).
You also said Nader can get write-ins in Illinois. Illinois law provides for write-ins for those who file a write-in declaration of candidacy. But the sad truth is that the vast majority of write-ins, even for declared write-in candidates, are not counted in Illinois. But perhaps Nader write-in voters can sue over the inevitable loss of their write-in votes.
You said Nader filed his Illinois lawsuit too late. But George Wallace (who had been running for president as an independent/minor party candidate since September 1967, and who formally declared in January 1968) didn't sue Ohio in 3-judge US District Court until July 29, 1968 (see 290 F Supp 985 for verification of that). The US Supreme Court put him on the ballot.
Eugene McCarthy declared his independent candidacy for president in December 1974, but he didn't sue Texas over ballot access until July 30, 1976 (see 429 US 1318 for verification). The US Supreme Court put him on the ballot.
The Harold Washington Party didn't sue to get on the ballot in 1990 (for their Cook County candidates) until sometime in August 1990, after their petitions had been rejected. Maybe they didn't sue until September. They lost in State Supreme Court on September 25, 1990. The US Supreme Court still put them on the ballot. Cook County was ordered to reprint all its 3,000,000 ballots, two weeks before the November election. Norman v Reed.
All of these people filed their ballot access lawsuits later than Nader did.
Sincerely,
Richard Winger