New Texas Gubernatorial Poll

June 28th, 2006

A poll released on June 29 by Survey USA shows these figures for the Texas gubernatorial race: Republican Rick Perry 35%, Independent Kinky Friedman 21%, Democrat Chris Bell 20%, independent Carole Strayhorn 19%, other (including the Libertarian, James Werner) and undecided 5%.



U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Mid-Decade Redistricting

June 28th, 2006

On June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court said nothing in the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from redrawing congressional and legislative district boundaries in the middle of a decade. League of United Latin American Citizens v Perry, 05-204. The Court did say that one Texas district, the 23rd, must have its boundaries redrawn, because the redistricting violated the Voting Rights Act as to that one district. The 23rd district borders 5 other districts, so some of them will also have new boundaries. It seems the Texas legislature will be forced to return in a special session to redraw these lines, or perhaps the U.S. District Court in Austin will draw new lines. In that event, the March 2006 primary as to the changed districts is void. All of the districts with changed boundaries are in southwestern Texas. The only large city affected is San Antonio.

Massachusetts Fusion Initiative Qualifies

June 27th, 2006

On June 27, the Massachusetts Secretary of State said that the “fusion” initiative now has enough signatures and will be on the November 2006 ballot. The initiative would legalize fusion (the ability of two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate). It would also make it far easier for a party to remain on the ballot. The Working Families Party sponsored this initiative.

Louisiana Governor Signs SB 18 (Closed Primaries for Congress)

June 27th, 2006

On June 23, Governor Kathleen Blanco signed SB 18, to restore closed primaries in Louisiana for congressional elections. The bill takes effect next year. This year’s congressional elections will still use the “top-two” system, with the first round in November, and any needed run-off in December.

ACLU Sues Arkansas over Ballot Access for Minor Parties

June 27th, 2006

On June 27, the national Voting Rights office of the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Arkansas, over the number of signatures needed for a new or minor party to get on the ballot. Green Party of Arkansas v Daniels, 4:06-cv-758. The statutory law says a new party needs a petition of 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, which would be 24,171 signatures. However, in 1996, a federal court ruled that since Arkansas only requires 10,000 signatures for statewide independent candidates (for office other than president), there is no rational reason for Arkansas to require more than 10,000 signatures for new parties. The state filed an appeal in the 1996 case, but then dropped the appeal, yet refuses to recognize the existence of the 1996 ruling. The new lawsuit will request a court order, forcing the state to obey the 1996 ruling.

Arkansas Gubernatorial Independent Qualifies

June 27th, 2006

On June 27, the Arkansas Secretary of State ruled that independent gubernatorial Rod Bryan qualified for the November ballot. Bryan is the first independent candidate for Governor of Arkansas to be on the ballot since 1938. Back in 1938, an independent candidate for any office only needed 50 signatures. The current requirement is 10,000.

Former Wichita Mayor Likely to be Independent Gubernatorial Candidate in Kansas

June 26th, 2006

Bob Knight, former Mayor of Wichita, Kansas, will probably be an independent candidate for Governor of Kansas this year. He said on June 24 that he has supporters who want to collect the needed 5,000 signatures for him, and he has told them “go ahead”. Thanks to Politics1 for this news.

The number of states this year with independent or minor party candidates for Governor who have held fairly important elected or appointed office in the past, is unprecedented. These states include Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Texas.

Green, Constitution Parties Submit Signatures in Illinois

June 26th, 2006

June 26 is the petition deadline for minor party candidate petitions in Illinois. Two parties filed: Green and Constitution. The state law requires 25,000 signatures for statewide nominees, but state law also says that all petitions are deemed acceptable, whether they have the minimum number of signatures or not. So both parties will be on the ballot, unless there is a challenge. The Green Party believes that its 39,000 signatures will survive a challenge, since they were collected very carefully. The Constitution Party is very vulnerable to a challenge,, since its petition had only 4,500 signatures.

U.S. Supreme Court Campaign Finance Ruling is Pro-Political Party

June 26th, 2006

On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated Vermont’s campaign finance restrictions. Randall v Sorrell, 04-1528. The lead plaintiff, Neil Randall, had been elected to the Vermont legislature as a Libertarian, although he had also won the Republican nomination as well. Later he changed parties from Libertarian to Republican, and was re-elected solely as a Republican.

The ruling struck down Vermont’s expenditure limits, on the basis that the Supreme Court had already thrown out expenditure limits back in 1976. More significantly, it also said Vermont’s contribution limits are too low, especially the limit on how much money a political party may contribute to its own nominees. The Court said, “We agree with the District Court that the Act’s contribution limits ‘would reduce the voice of political parties’ in Vermont to a ‘whisper.’ The law let parties contribute only $200 to any particular nominee.

League of Women Voters Favors Paper Trail

June 26th, 2006

The League of Women Voters just held a national convention in Minneapolis. The national League passed a resolution that says, “The League supports only voting systems that have a voter-verifiable paper ballot or other paper record that is the official record of the voter’s intent, that the voter can verify while in the process of voting”.

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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.