No Independent Candidates Qualify in Illinois

December 29th, 2005

No independent candidates for congress, or for state executive or legislative posts, will be on the Illinois ballot in November 2006 (there may be minor party candidates in Illinois in 2006, but that hasn’t been determined yet). In Illinois, independent candidates must file in December of the year before the election (unless they are running for president, and of course 2006 is not a presidential election year). Although a handful of independent candidates turned in token petitions, all of them have been challenged.



New Kentucky Registration Data

December 27th, 2005

Kentucky State Board of Elections has released the first-ever registration data for minor parties. The state totals as of Dec. 21, 2005, are 56 Libertarians, 20 Greens, 7 Constitution Party, 3 Reform Party, 533 independents. These figures are small because the regulation empowering the collection of this data only applies to registration forms filled out later than Nov. 15, 2005.

Labor Party Begins First Petition to Qualify

December 26th, 2005

The Labor Party was formed in 1990 by Tony Mazzocchi, but until this year, it never attempted to qualify as a political party in any state. However, a few weeks ago, the Labor Party launched a petition drive to qualify itself for the South Carolina ballot. The election law says these signatures are due six months before the November 2006, which works out to May 7, 2006. However, the South Carolina Election Commission has told the Labor Party that it really ought to submit its petitions by January 31, 2006, so the party is attempting t0 meet that deadline. The party says it chose South Carolina because the vast majority of the state’s adult population are workers, and that neither major party in that state serves their interests.

Socialist Workers Hearing Date in Utah

December 22nd, 2005

A hearing will be held in US District Court in Utah on January 25, 2006, in International Assn. of United Workers Union v United Mine Workers of America. This is the case in which a company union is suing, among others, The Militant (newspaper of the Socialist Workers Party) for slander, concerning how The Militant reported a labor union dispute.

Reform Party Appeals FEC Fine

December 22nd, 2005

On December 20, the Reform Party appealed an order of the U.S. District Court in Florida that had ordered the party to repay $333,558 to the Federal Election Commission. FEC v Reform Party of USA.

Connecticut Poll

December 21st, 2005

A poll for the U.S. Senate race in Connecticut was released by Rasmussen Polling Company. It shows 54% for incumbent Democrat Joseph Lieberman, 37% for potential independent candidate Lowell Weicker, 7% “other”, and 7% “not sure”. No Republican was named, since no one knows who the Republican nominee will be. The poll was taken on December 8.

New Postal Regulation on Petitioning

December 21st, 2005

The U.S. Postal Service promulgated a new regulation on December 1, 2005, allowing petitioning on sidewalks that are parallel to streets. Petitioning on sidewalks that go from a parking lot to the door of the post office is still illegal, but the constitutionality of that ban is now back in U.S. District Court. The new regulation says that people can stand on any sidewalks and ask people to sign, but the person holding the clipboard must be on a sidewalk that is parallel to the street, not on an interior sidewalk.

Illinois Court Issues Injunction Against Deadline

December 21st, 2005

On December 20, a state court in Illinois granted an injunction, requiring elections officials to place three candidates on the ballot, even though they missed the statutory filing deadline. The three candidates are incumbent judges, seeking to appear in a retention election (an election in which voters vote “yes” or “no” on that judge). The Illinois Constitution sets a much later deadline than the statute does. The court found a substantial likelihood, therefore, that the statutory deadline is unconstitutional. O’Brien v Bellows, 05-coel-0036.

Arizona Libertarians Retain Ballot Position

December 20th, 2005

On December 20, the Arizona Secretary of State announced new registration data, as of November 1, 2005. Parties that did not poll 5% for president in 2004 needed to keep their registration above two-thirds of 1%, at this tally, to be on the 2006 ballot. The Arizona Libertarian Party needed 17,764 registrants to remain on, and has 18,476. No other minor party is on the Arizona ballot, although any new party could get still get on by petition.

Court Refuses to Require Connecticut to Use Same-Day Registration

December 20th, 2005

On December 20, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Kravitz, a Bush Jr. appointee, ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not require states to permit same-day voter registration. ACORN v Bysiewicz, 3:04-cv-1624.

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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!

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Other information:

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  • 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]

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