Pennsylvania Greens Submit 100,000 Signatures

July 31st, 2006

On July 31, one day before the deadline, the Pennsylvania Green Party submitted approximately 100,000 signatures. This is the largest number of signatures collected by any state’s Green Party since the California Green Party obtained 100,897 registered members in late 1991, in order to qualify for the California ballot.



5th Circuit Hears DeLay Replacement Case

July 31st, 2006

On July 31, the 5th circuit heard Texas Democratic Party v Benkiser, no. 06-50812. See here for an account.

Congress Hearing on D.C. Vote Bill

July 31st, 2006

On September 14, the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution will hold a hearing on HR 5388, the bill to increase the size of the U.S. House by one (a seat which would go to Utah) and also give the District of Columbia a voting member.

Calif. Republican Party Ballot Access Lawsuit will be Heard in Court August 9

July 31st, 2006

On August 9, a California Superior Court in Sacramento will hear a case brought by several county units of the California Republican Party, to overturn section 8605 of the California Election Code. Sonoma County Republican Central Committee v McPherson, 06-cs-01078. The issue is whether the California Constitution (as amended in 2004) overrides the election code that requires a very large number of write-ins for anyone to be nominated by write-in votes at a party primary. The candidate-plaintiff in the case, Raylene Wiesner, received 687 votes in the June 2006 Republican primary for Assembly, 7th district. No one else received any votes for that position, but the Secretary of State won’t place her name on the November ballot because her write-in total was below 1,683 (1% of the vote for that office in the last general election).

New York Times Story on Aaron Russo

July 31st, 2006

The New York Times of July 31, 2006 has a lengthy story on Aaron Russo’s film “America: From Freedom to Fascism”. The story erroneously says “Russo sought the Libertarian Party nomination for president in 2004 but dropped out because of ill health.” Actually, Russo did seek that nomination actively, and did not drop out, and was instead defeated at the party’s national convention on the third ballot.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Tells Elections Officials to Stop Using Loyalty Oath for Candidates

July 30th, 2006

On July 25, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General instructed state elections officials to delete the “loyalty oath” on declarations of candidacy. The law, which was upheld in federal court in 1970, requires all candidates for state and local office to swear that they are not “subversive persons”.

The Attorney General acted after he was informed that the Socialist Workers Party was about to sue, to overturn the oath. In 1974 the U.S. Supreme Court had unanimously ruled that such candidate and political party oaths violate the First Amendment.

Illinois Greens Likely to Defeat Democratic Petition Challenge

July 30th, 2006

For the past several weeks, each signature on the Green Party’s statewide Illinois petition has been undergoing validation. The process is two-thirds done, and so far the Green validity rate is running above 75%, so it is very likely the petition will be ruled valid. 25,000 valid are required and Greens submitted 39,000.

Greens May Qualify in Pennsylvania Even if Lawsuit Loses

July 29th, 2006

The three Pennsylvania qualified minor parties are awaiting a decision from the 3rd circuit, on whether they should be required to submit petitions this year. In the meantime, the Green Party has spent $100,000 in Pennsylvania this year, to obtain the needed 67,070 valid signatures. The deadline is August 1, and the Green Party’s statewide slate expects to turn in at least 90,000 signatures.

Wisconsin Constitution Party Will Probably Lose its Ballot Status

July 29th, 2006

The Constitution Party is a ballot-qualified party in Wisconsin, so it nominates by primary. Parties remain on the ballot by polling 1% for any statewide race.

The only two individuals running for statewide office in the Constitution Party both failed to get enough signatures to be on their own party’s primary ballot. Therefore, unless either of them can get 2,000 write-ins in their own party’s primary in September, neither will be on the November ballot. Chances are high that the party will then go off the ballot, since it won’t have polled 1% for any statewide office.

Nationwide Harris Poll on Congressional Elections

July 28th, 2006

Harris Interactive recently released a poll asking, “If the election of Congress were being held today, would you be voting for the Republican candidate or the Democratic candidate?” The responses were: Democratic 44%, Republican 31%, “other” 17%, undecided 8%. The poll was taken July 7-10, 2006.

« Previous 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.