Unity08 Gets Publicity

May 31st, 2006

On May 28, a group called Unity08 announced plans to choose an independent presidential candidate over the internet, and petition to get him or her on the November 2008 ballots. On May 31 the group was featured in the Washington Post and on the PBS News show Lehrer News Hour. The publicity was due to the fact that Unity08 is being organized by experienced and well-known Democratic and Republican political organizers. The spokesmen on the Lehrer News Hour were Doug Bailey and Hamilton Jordan. They believe that the Democratic and Republican presidential selection process (depending on Iowa caucus attendees and New Hampshire voters) is too exclusionary. They also believe that the two major parties cannot tackle the pressing issues of the day, because the base of each of these parties is fixated on issues that are not as pressing. Finally, they believe that the two major parties are so hostile to each other, and so dedicated to winning at any price, that public discourse and government policy suffer.

For more information, see www.unity08.com.



Arkansas Greens Submit 18,000 Signatures

May 31st, 2006

On May 30, the Arkansas Green Party submitted 18,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office, to qualify for party status. The statutory law requires slightly over 24,000 signatures. However, that law was declared unconstitutional in 1996. Arkansas appealed the 1996 ruling, but then dropped its own appeal, and now tries to pretend that the 1996 ruling doesn’t exist. The Associated Press reporter who covered this story doesn’t seem to know about the 1996 ruling, which is called Citizens to Establish a Reform Party v Priest, 970 F Supp 690. That decision said it is unconstitutional for Arkansas to require more than 10,000 signatures for a new party, since Arkansas requires that many signatures for statewide non-presidential independent candidates.

Green Party on Virginia Ballot for US Senate

May 30th, 2006

The Virginia Green Party has qualified its candidate for U.S. Senate. This is the first time the Green Party has completed a petition drive as difficult as 10,000 signatures anywhere in the South, except for the 2000 Green petitions in connection with the Nader campaign in Texas and Virginia in 2000. The Virginia Green Party calls itself the Independent Green Party.

Judge Myron Thompson Upholds Alabama June 6 Deadline

May 30th, 2006

On May 30, U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson, a Carter appointee, upheld Alabama’s June 6 petition deadline for minor parties and non-presidential independents. Swanson v Worley, 2:02cv644-T.

The decision is only 7 pages long, and doesn’t even mention the two U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the issue of petition deadlines, Mandel v Bradley, and Anderson v Celebrezze. Mandel v Bradley, issued in 1977 by the U.S. Supreme Court, said that early petition deadlines are unconstitutional if the record shows that very few minor parties or independents ever qualify. Thompson ignored the record, which showed that few such candidates have qualified in Alabama ever since the deadline was moved from mid-July to early June, in 2002.

Plaintiffs can now appeal this case, which was filed in 2002, to the 11th circuit.

Texas Greens Fail to Qualify

May 30th, 2006

May 30 is the Texas deadline for minor party petitions this year. The Texas Green Party worked very hard, but only collected 26,584 signatures, so they won’t be on the Texas ballot this year. 45,253 are required this year.

California Assembly Passes Anti-Electoral College Bill

May 30th, 2006

On May 30, the California Assembly passed AB 2948, by a vote of 42-25. AB 2948 is the bill being introduced around the U.S., in various state legislatures, that sets up an interstate compact. The compact would only go into effect after states containing a majority of electoral votes had joined. After that, states in the compact would appoint presidential electors pledged to the winner of the national popular vote. The authority for a state to do that is in Article II, sec. 1, which says, “Each state shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors”.

Tennessee Makes it Harder for Write-in Candidates to be Nominated in Primaries

May 28th, 2006

Ironically, in the same year in which Ohio and Pennsylvania Democrats took advantage of the ability to win primaries by write-in votes, Tennessee Democrats were making it more difficult for anyone to be nominated by write-in votes at primaries. On May 27 (Saturday), the last day of the Tennessee 2006 legislative session, a bill pushed by Democrats just barely passed. It changes the formula for the number of write-ins needed to win a primary, from 5% of the number of voters who turn out in that primary, to 5% of the number of registered voters. Thanks to Michael Morrison for this news.

Pennsylvania Democrats Nominate Candidates in Two Districts by Write-in Votes

May 28th, 2006

Pennsylvania held primaries for the Democratic and Republican Parties on May 16. In both the 9th U.S. House district, and the 15th U.S. House district, no Democrat had appeared on the primary ballot. However, in both districts, a Democrat received enough write-in votes to be nominated. Pennsylvania law requires 1,000 signatures for a write-in candidate in a primary to be nominated. The write-in winners are Tony Barr in the 9th district, and Charles Dertinger in the 15th district. Thanks to Tony Roza for this news.

As reported earlier, on May 2, Ohio Democrats also used write-in votes to nominate a candidate for US House this year, in the 6th district.

Minneapolis Voters To Decide on Using IRV

May 27th, 2006

On May 26, the Minneapolis city council voted 11-1 to ask voters whether to amend the city charter to use Instant Runoff-Voting. The question will be on the November 2006 ballot.

Judges Reverses Himself on Foreign Languages on Petitions

May 27th, 2006

On May 26, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Klausner (Los Angeles) revoked one of his own earlier rulings, on whether recall petitions need to be in languages other than English. Back on January 17, 2006, he had invalidated recall petitions in the city of Rosemead, California, because they had been printed only in English. 418 F Supp 2d 1174. But on May 26, he changed his mind and allowed the recall to go forward. His changed stance is due to the fact that an earlier 9th circuit opinion, also requiring other languages on recall petitions, is being reheard, and most observers expect that original ruling to be reversed as well.

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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.