Earlier Presidential Primaries

May 12th, 2005

The Alabama legislature’s final day is Monday, May 16. On that day, the fate of HB100, which moves the presidential primary to the first Saturday after New Hampshire’s primary, will be decided. The bill has already passed the House and all Senate committees.

So far this year, the only other state that has moved its presidential primary to an earlier date is Arkansas, which moved it from May to the first Tuesday in February. That change was made via SB235, signed into law on March 3, 2005.

Bills are pending in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to move those states’ presidential primaries to March. Pennsylvania’s is now in April, and New Jersey’s is now in June.



Presidential Debates Court Hearing

May 12th, 2005

On May 9, the US Court of Appeals, DC circuit, heard arguments in Hagelin v Federal Election Commission. The 3 judges were David Tatl (Clinton appointee), Harry Edwards (Carter appointee) and Karen Henderson (Bush Sr. appointee). All 3 judges were very active in the questioning and all 3 seemed very interested in the case. The lower court had ruled that the FEC had to investigate the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is run by Democratic and Republican Party officials and which has always tried to exclude all non-major party presidential nominees from the debates. Plaintiffs in this lawsuit include John Hagelin, Ralph Nader, Pat Buchanan and Howard Phillips, all of whom ran for president in either 2000 or 2004 or both. A decision is likely in 4 months or so.

N.C. IRV Bill Advances

May 12th, 2005

On May 11, North Carolina HB 1024 passed the House Election Law Committee. It lets 10 counties use Instant-Runoff Voting for their county and city elections, on a trial basis, in 2006 only. The State Board of Elections would choose which ten counties, based partly on the desires of those counties.

Connecticut Bill Advances

May 9th, 2005

Connecticut SB 1233, which would set up a procedure by which a group could transform itself into a qualified party in advance of any particular election, has cleared all committee hurdles. It is now in the queue to be taken up by the State Senate. The bill requires a petition signed by 1% of the last vote cast, in order to create a new ballot-qualified party. Such a group, having completed the petition, could then nominate by convention for all partisan offices with no more petitioning.

Petition Restriction Bills Fail in Florida

May 9th, 2005

The Florida legislature has adjourned for the year. SB 1996 and HB 1471, which would have created almost impossible rules for circulating initiative petitions, failed to pass. The bills would have outlawed paying circulators per signature, whether directly or indirectly.

The legislature did pass HB 1567, which makes the current rules for minor party presidential ballot access clearer and more specific. The old law said any national political party could place its presidential nominee on the ballot just by requesting it, but hadn’t defined “national political party”. The bill clarifies that it is a party that is on the ballot in at least one state other than Florida.

British Election Results

May 5th, 2005

British election results are Labour 356 seats, Conservative 197, Liberal Democrat 62, other 30. 1 seat is still undecided.

The share of the popular vote in the whole nation is: Labour 35.6%, Conservative 32.7%, Liberal Democrat 22.3%, other 4.4%.

Three smaller parties that had tried very hard to win at least one seat, failed to win any. They are the Green Party, whose best showing was 22% for a third place finish; the British National Party, whose best showing was 17%; and the U.K. Independence Party. However, the new, militantly anti-Iraq war Respect Party won a seat in London’s east end.

Oregon News

May 5th, 2005

1. A very restrictive ballot access bill, HB 2614, passed the Oregon House of Representatives Elections & Rules Committee on May 5. It makes it illegal for a registered member of a qualified party to sign a petition for an independent candidate. A similar law was held unconstitutional in federal court in 1999 in Arizona (that lawsuit was Campbell v Hull, 73 F Supp 2d 1081). Ballot Access News editor Richard Winger has just e-mailed every member of the Oregon House, asking for a “no” vote. Unfortunately, the League of Women Voters has endorsed the bill.

2. The U.S. Supreme Court will probably decide on May 19 whether to hear Ralph Nader’s lawsuit against the Oregon Secretary of State. Kucera v Bradbury, 04-872. May 19 is a Thursday; the court won’t tell what it did until Monday, May 23. The issue in that case is whether it is constitutional for the state to issue new rules on petition validity after the petitions have been turned in.

Louisiana Primary Bill Advances

May 4th, 2005

On May 4, the Louisiana Senate Government Affairs Committee passed SB 53, which would switch that state’s congressional elections from the current non-partisan system (except that party labels are permitted), to a standard closed primary. The bill would let each qualified party decide for itself whether to let independents vote in its congressional primaries.

SB 53 provides for primaries for all qualified parties. Louisiana now has 3 qualified parties (Democratic, Republican, Libertarian) and the Greens are about to qualify. If only one person filed in a party primary, then that primary for that office would not be held and the one candidate would be deemed nominated.

A similar bill is pending in the House, HB 358, but it differs somewhat from SB 53. HB 358 says that small qualified parties should nominate by convention, not by primary.

Vermont IRV Bill Passes

May 4th, 2005

On May 3, the Vermont legislature passed H505, which authorizes the city of Burlington to use Instant-Runoff Voting for its Mayoral elections. The voters of Burlington voted to use IRV in March 2005, but that change couldn’t go into effect until the legislature acted to amend the city’s charter, which H505 does.

DC Voting Rights Bill Introduced

May 4th, 2005

On May 3, Congressman Tom Davis (R-Virginia) introduced HR 2043. It temporarily expands the size of the US House of Representatives, until 2011. It would give a full seat to the District of Columbia, and another seat to Utah. Utah is the state that came closest to getting another seat in the reapportionment of 2001. Since it is expected that the new Utah seat would elect a Republican, and the new District of Columbia seat would likely choose a Democrat, Davis hopes both major parties will support his bill.

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Welcome to the OFFICIAL online home of Ballot Access News, a non-partisan newsletter reporting on the trials and tribulations of folks trying to put candidates on the ballot in the United States of America. There are many surprisingly restrictive ballot access laws in this country, which the average voter has no knowledge or conception of; part of our purpose here (besides reporting on progress made) is to report on these restrictive ballot access laws so that more people are aware of them. I hope you find these materials interesting and exciting; if you do, you can support the newsletter by subscribing!

Ballot Access News is edited and published by Richard Winger, the nation's leading expert on ballot access legal issues.

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  • Politics, Soviet-style by S. Philip Gordon, regarding recent ballot access issues in Georgia – the US state, not the Russian territority!

Extra Features:

Other information:

  • Here's how to subscribe to Ballot Access News!

  • Here's information on Presidential Ballot Access as well as the vote totals of recent Presidential elections.

  • Here are some other sites which may also be of interest:

    Project Vote-Smart

    Project Vote Smart is a citizens' organization dedicated to serving all Americans with accurate and unbiased information for electoral decision-making. It was inaugerated in 1992 by former US Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and other leaders. Its webpage offers information about all ballot-listed candidates for all federal and state office.
    [Added:040729]

    The ACE Project
    An interesting site concerning itself with the "Administration and Cost of Elections", including issues of fairness and regulatory approaches in various countries. They seem to be almost blind to the ways that third parties in the USA are harmed by campaign finance rules crafted for the problems characteristic of the larger parties, or the ways that third parties would be disenfranchised by various proposed rules, but this is nevertheless a useful resource, particularly for the international comparisons it makes.
    [Added:001206]

    "Unofficial" B.A.N. Page

    At first, it looks like there's not much here. But then you follow the "Charts" link, and click on one of the listed candidates, and you'll get some truly wonderful nationwide maps of voting patterns.
    [Checked:991014]

    ThirdPartyNews.net

    A site that covers news about minor parties.
    [Checked:060414]

    Third Party Central

    Collects lots of good information and links relating to various third parties into one convenient location. Nice set of writings on why one should vote third-party.
    [Checked:991014]

    Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections

    A surprisingly complete listing of votes cast in Presidential elections, including numerous third-party candidates and nice maps of vote distribution by state and (on the individual state pages) by county.
    [New-URL:010309]

    D.C.'s Political Report

    Very good presentation of candidate and party information, including virtually every known third-party group in the USA. Election results, candidate information, etc.
    [Updated:991214]

    Initiative For Texas

    A group trying to establish the right to Initiative and Referendum in Texas. Their work has intriguing parallels and overlaps with ballot access work. Every page at the site seems to have some music on it, which can get annoying after awhile, but otherwise it's an interesting site.
    [Checked:991014]

    Center for Voting and Democracy

    Folks concerned with alternative voting systems, and related issues, from a moderately leftist perspective. Useful articles describing how better systems of voting and electing actually work.
    [Added:000823]

The newsletter is published by and copyright by Richard Winger.