Greenspan Predicts Well-Financed Independent Presidential Candidate

March 10th, 2006

Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve Chair, predicts in his memoir that the current ideological divide separating conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats leaves a “vast untended center from which a well-financed independent presidential candidate is likely to emerge” in either 2008 or 2012.



Illinois State Senator Might Create New Party

March 9th, 2006

Illinois State Senator James Meeks, a Democrat from Chicago, is threatening to organize a new party this year and to be its candidate for Governor. He is angry with the incumbent Democratic Governor, Rod Blagojevich, for promising not to raise sales or income taxes. Although Meeks is a Democrat, he was elected to the State Senate in 2002 as the nominee of the “Honesty and Integrity Party”. Meeks cannot be an independent candidate for Governor this year because the deadline has already passed, although that deadline is under legal attack in a case filed in 2004, now pending in the 7th circuit.

Lenora Fulani Loses First Round of Independence Party Fight

March 9th, 2006

On March 7, the New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn dismissed a lawsuit brought by Lenora Fulani and her allies, over whether the state Independence Party had a right to dissolve three county organizations of the party. Judge Joseph Levine ruled that the lawsuit has procedural flaws, and dismissed it without prejudice, so that it can be refiled under different procedures. The three counties are Brooklyn (Kings), Queens and Bronx, where Fulani and her allies were in charge.

Washington Libertarian Debate Loss

March 9th, 2006

On March 3, a Washington State Superior Court Judge ruled against Ruth Bennett in her case involving televised debates. Bennett ran for Governor in 2004 as a Libertarian. She has asked for a rehearing. Bennett v Belo Corp., 05-2-27309-7 Seattle.

Calif. Supreme Court Hears Prop. 60 Case

March 8th, 2006

On March 8, the California Supreme Court heard arguments in Californians for an Open Primary v McPherson. The issue is whether Prop. 60 (passed overwhelmingly by the voters in November 2004) is validly part of the California Constitution. The legislature put it on the ballot. It says that political parties have a right to have the person who receives the most votes in their primary, placed on the November ballot. The problem is that the legislature put it on the ballot with an unrelated subject, providing that if the state sells surplus property, the proceeds should be used to reduce state debt. Before the November 2004 election, the State Court of Appeals cut the proposal into two ballot questions, one on political party rights, and one on the sale of surplus property.

The attorney for foes of Prop. 60 asked the Court to invalidate it. The State Constitution does not require that legislative constitutional amendments only deal with a single subject. But the Constitution does require the legislature to write a separate ballot measure for every section of the Constitution that is being amended, a provision that has been ignored for decades.

At the hearing, most members of the California Supreme Court seemed inclined to disagree with the State Court of Appeals. However, it is far from clear that the California Supreme Court will invalidate Prop. 60, even if the Supreme Court finds that it was a mistake to have put it on the ballot in the first place.

Ron Paul Easily Wins Re-Nomination

March 8th, 2006

Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, the only member of Congress who has been willing to introduce legislation outlawing restrictive ballot access laws in the past 10 years, was easily re-nominated in the Republican primary on March 7. He polled 77.7% of the vote; his opponent, Cynthia Sinatra (daughter-in-law of the famous singer) got 22.3%. Sinatra based her campaign on support for President Bush’s Iraq policy, which Paul opposes. Paul is 70 and was the Libertarian Party nominee for president in 1988.

Progressive Party Wins Burlington Mayor Election

March 7th, 2006

Bob Kiss, Progressive Party nominee for Mayor of Burlington, Vermont, was elected on March 7. The election is partisan. The outgoing Mayor was a Democrat, but he didn’t run for re-election. Kiss is now a Progressive Party state legislator. The election was conducted using Instant-Runoff Voting. The first choice votes were Kiss 39%, Democrat 31%, Republican 26%, two independents together, 4%. After factoring in the 2nd choice votes from the voters who had made the Republican and one of the independents their first choices, the final tally was Kiss 54%, the Democrat 46%. This was the first partisan election conducted in the U.S. with Instant-Runoff Voting since the 1970’s.

Labor Party Progress

March 7th, 2006

The Labor Party now expects to submit its petition for party status in South Carolina by mid-April. The petition needs 10,000 valid signatures. The party had originally expected to be done by the end of January, but the process is taking longer than anticipated.

Special Congressional Election

March 5th, 2006

California will hold a special congressional election on April 11, in the 50th district, to fill the seat left vacant when Congressman Randy Cunningham resigned. Eighteen candidates are running: 14 Republicans, 2 Democrats, 1 Libertarian (Paul King) and one independent (William Griffith). If no one gets 50% on April 11, there will be a run-off between the leading Democrat, the leading Republican, the Libertarian and the independent on June 6.

Puerto Rico Case Set for US Supreme Court Conference

March 4th, 2006

The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled Igartua v U.S. for its conference of March 17 (05-650). The issue is whether U.S. citizens living in Puerto Rico have a constitutional right to vote for president. The case highlights an important contradiction in the U.S. Constitution and federal and state laws concerning presidential elections. On the one hand, Article One plainly says that the states choose presidential electors. Therefore, no citizen of the U.S. is voting for president in November of presidential election years. State legislatures in all 50 states have granted the voters the right to choose that state’s presidential electors. With this understanding of our presidential election system, plainly U.S. citizens living in U.S. territories have no claim on a right to vote for president.

On the other hand, federal campaign laws, and various state ballot access laws, all presume that the voters are voting for president in November. There are no federal or state campaign finance laws relating to candidates for presidential elector. In theory then, anyone running for presidential elector is free to raise and spend as much money as he or she wishes, and anyone is free to donate an unlimited amount of money.

Some states have ballot access laws that purport to outlaw anyone running in a major party presidential primary and then appearing on a November ballot as an independent presidential candidate. Yet if the true election in November is for presidential elector, these laws make no sense. These laws purport to ban “sore losers”, yet the candidates for presidential electors didn’t run in any presidential primary earlier, and therefore they aren’t “sore losers”.

There is some indication that the U.S. Supreme Court is interested in these contradictions, and might just decide to hear the case. Conference results won’t be released to the public until March 20 at the earliest.

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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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  • 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.