Pro-minor party Democrats to run for Secretary of State in Alabama, Massachusetts

February 19th, 2006

The Democratic primaries this year for Secretary of State in both Alabama and Massachusetts both may be interesting to friends of minor political parties. In both primaries, pro-minor individuals will try to unseat veteran Secretaries of State. In Alabama, Ed Packard, a long-time employee of the Secretary of State’s office, will oppose incumbent Nancy Worley. In Massachusetts, attorney John Bonifaz of the National Voting Rights Institute will oppose incumbent William Galvin.

Packard has always been helpful to minor party and independent candidates in Alabama, to the extent he was able to help. Worley has not been openly hostile to minor parties or independent candidates, but she hasn’t been interested in helping them, either. Alabama is one of the five worst states for ballot access.

Bonifaz, as Secretary of State in Massachusetts, would work very hard to implement “clean elections” in that state. As an attorney, he has represented the Natural Law, Reform, Constitution and Reform Parties in fighting the Commission on Presidential Debates.



Rick Jore Probably to be in 2-way Race

February 19th, 2006

Rick Jore, former Constitution Party state representative from Montana, is likely to be in a two-way race with the Democratic incumbent who unseated him (in a virtual tie) in November 2004. It seems likely the Republicans won’t run anyone in that race, the 12th State House district.

Restrictive New Mexico Bill Fails to Pass

February 18th, 2006

New Mexico’s House Bill 453, which would have moved the petition deadline for the nominees of qualified minor parties from mid-July to early June, failed to pass, and the legislature has now adjourned.

Jay Fisher Drops Out of US House Race in Georgia

February 17th, 2006

Jay Fisher, who had hoped to be the first US House candidate on the ballot in Georgia from a party other than Democratic or Republican since 1942, has dropped out. He had hoped to appear as the Libertarian nominee in the 6th district. The first blow to his campaign was when he learned that the signature requirement is not 15,000, but 19,377. Since past experience with U.S. House petitioning in Georgia shows that the invalidity rate of signatures is typically 50% (since so many registered voters who sign don’t live in the correct district), this would have meant collecting 40,000 signatures before mid-July. Another barrier was that his employer informed him that, even though there is no formal policy against state employees running for federal office, an informal policy frowns on it.

Georgia Loses Social Security Number Case

February 17th, 2006

On February 16, the 11th circuit ruled that Georgia may not require voters to put their Social Security numbers on voter registration forms. Schwier v Cox, 05-11428. Thanks to Ed Still for the news.

New York Independence Party Internal Dispute Goes to Court

February 17th, 2006

On February 16, the New York Supreme Court in Brooklyn heard arguments in Fulani v McKay, 4444-2006. The issue is whether the state officers of a ballot-qualified party may dissolve the county organizations of a party. In this case, Frank McKay, state chair, and his state committee, dissolved the Brooklyn, Queens and Bronx units of their own party, since he has political disagreements with those county units of his own party.

Maryland IRV Hearing Goes Well

February 17th, 2006

On February 16, the Maryland State Senate that handles election law bills heard testimony on SB 292, which would implement Instant-Runoff Voting for all partisan elections in the state. The lead sponsor is Senator Paul Pinsky, who authored the ballot access reform back in the 1990’s. All witnesses who appeared in person testified in favor. The Committee will vote sometime later this month.

A Better, Older Congressional Bill on Public Funding

February 16th, 2006

One bill on public funding of congressional candidates is HR 3099, which was introduced June 28, 2005 by Congressman John Tierney (D-Mass.). HR 3099 is mildly discriminatory. Nominees of parties that polled 25% of the vote in the last 5 years for president, governor, or US House in that district receive public funding for US House if they collect $5 contributions from at least 1,500 residents of their district. Independent candidates who had run before and polled 25% would also need 1,500 contributors. All other candidates would need 2,250 contributors. HR 3099 is far fairer than HR 4694 (see post about HR 4694 below, Feb. 2).

Calif. Supreme Court Excuses Inadvertent Errors in Initiative Text

February 16th, 2006

On February 16, the California Supreme Court ruled that an initiative should not necessarily be removed from the ballot because of relatively minor errors (in this case, the minor error was that the proponents submitted one copy of their initiative to the Attorney General for review and for a title, and put a slightly different version on their petitions). The initiative in question was to provide for non-partisan redistricting (Prop. 77). The voters had defeated the measure in November 2005 anyway, but the Court still issued the opinion to decide the issue for future initiatives. The Court also said that when an initiative passes, it is not proper for it to be invalidated later on the grounds that the initiative procedures used by the proponents were improper.

This decision makes it virtually certain that the same court will not invalidate Prop. 60 (the Constitutional amendment passed in November 2004, giving political parties a State constitutional right to have the nominee who got the most votes in the primary, appear on the November ballot). This is good news for the minor party campaign to invalidate the restrictive rules that prevent write-in winners in their primaries from appearing on the November ballot; that will be settled in a future lawsuit that depends on Prop. 60.

Anti-Fusion Bill Passes South Carolina House

February 15th, 2006

On January 27, the South Carolina House of Representatives passed H 4331, which makes it illegal for two parties to jointly nominate the same nominee. The bill is now pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »

 

  

Paper Issues:

Blog Archives Syndication

Subscribe to Ballot Access News via PayPal. Subscriptions are $15 for 12 issues a year ($20 foreign). Additional donations are welcome.

Subscribe to Ballot Access News via PayPal.
If you use your credit card to pay via PayPal, use this button.
New Feature:
Search Ballot Access News

Search ballot-access.org
Search WWW

 
Access to this site is free. Your donations support this site and the activities of Richard Winger in lobbying for free and open elections.

To subscribe via mail, click here and print out the form to mail.

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.

Issues available:

2008:

2007:

2006:

2005:

2004:

2003:

2002:

2001:

2000:

1999:

1998:

1997:

1996:

1995:

1994:

1993:

  • 1993 Issues not yet available online

Essays by Richard Winger:

Additional articles/essays:

  • 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.