On July 28, a lawsuit was filed to overturn California election code section 8605, which makes it extremely difficult for parties to nominate candidates by write-ins in their own primaries. Sonoma County Republican Central Committee & Raylene Wiesner v McPherson. The case number has not yet been assigned.

In November 2004, the California voters amended the state constitution, to provide that parties cannot be denied the right to place on the November ballot, the person who got the most votes in that party’s primary. Raylene Wiesner was the only candidate in the Republican primary this year for Assembly, 7th district. She was a write-in in that primary. She received 687 write-in votes, but sec. 8605 says that she needed 1,683 write-in votes. No one in any California partisan primary this year received enough votes to be nominated under section 8605, but section 8605 appears invalid, given the new Constitutional provision. The case was filed in Superior Court in Sacramento.

Ohio law permits candidates who get on the November ballot by petition to choose one of two labels, “other-party candidate” or “no-party candidate”. This law, passed in 2002, was opposed by the Secretary of State. Since then, the Secretary of State has used every trick at his command to thwart the law.

This year, there are two minor party candidates on the ballot for Ohio governor, Bob Fitrakis of the Green Party, and Bill Peirce of the Libertarian Party. Both of them have been denied the ability to have “other-party candidate” on the November ballot. This is because, when each turned in his petition, neither volunteered that they desired “other-party candidate” at that moment. No one asked them. Later, when they requested it, the Secretary of State said that since they didn’t ask for it at the moment they turned in their signatures, they will have no label at all.

In November 2004, the two petitioning presidential candidates, Michael Badnarik and Michael Peroutka, did know that they needed to volunteer their choice of a label, and each did have “other-party candidate” printed on the November ballot. However, when the Secretary of State printed his book of official election returns, called “Ohio Election Statistics 2004″, he omitted the label for each of them.

On July 27, New York Supreme Court Judge Emily Goodman held a trial in McKay v Mandell, 109502-2006. The issue is whether the state leadership of the New York Independence Party may expel 94 of its members, on the grounds that they are allied with Lenora Fulani. New York state law permits political parties to expel members deemed to be disloyal to the party. Judge Goodman asked attorneys for the state party leadership why the bulk of their complaints about Fulani extend to remarks she made in 1989, before the Independence Party even existed. She also asked, if Fulani and her supporters have been so disloyal to the party’s principles for so long, why the party (which was formed in 1994) is only now trying to expel them.

Charles Morrison, an independent candidate for US House in Ohio this year, filed a federal lawsuit to get on the November ballot on July 26. Morrison v Colley, 2:06-cv-644. The candidate had enough valid signatures to be on the ballot, but he was removed anyway because he had voted in the Republican primary this year, and had run for party office in that primary.

The Ohio law says that an “independent candidate” is potentially anyone “who claims not to be affiliated with a political party”. It doesn’t define those terms, associate them with any time period, or explain how it is to be enforced. Morrison certifies that he is not affiliated with any party. Ohio does not have registration by party. The lawsuit claims the standard is hopelessly and unconstitutionally vague. The case was assigned to U.S. District Court Judge George Smith, a Reagan appointee. In 2004, Judge Smith refused to order Ohio elections officials to count write-in votes for Ralph Nader, even though Ohio permits write-ins. His order said the voters whose votes would never be counted were not being harmed.

The Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE) earnestly requests a donation from readers of this page. COFOE recently paid for the Oklahoma Libertarian Party appeal fees (this is the case in state court challenging the 5% petition for new parties, and the 10% vote test for old parties to remain on the ballot). COFOE also paid the fees to appeal the Ohio independent petition deadline to the U.S. Supreme Court. As a result, COFOE’s funds are almost depleted.

Anyone who donates at least $25 will receive a free sub to the paper version of Ballot Access News, which contains content not found on this web page. For example, the August 1 issue contains a humerous story about how the Reform Party candidate for Governor of Florida (who is the wealthiest candidate in that race) “crashed” the recent Florida Democratic State Convention and addressed the crowd. That issue also contains a chart, showing how much money each political party received in state income tax donations, in the 13 states that permit such donations on state income tax forms. The chart contrasts the results with last year’s results.

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North Carolina H88 passed the legislature on July 25. It lowers the vote test for a party to remain on the ballot from 10%, to 2%. It also lowers the number of signatures for a statewide independent from 2% of the registered voters, to 2% of the last gubernatorial vote. Unfortunately it also requires independent candidates, and minor party nominees nominated by convention, to pay filing fees. And it doesn’t lower the number of signatures for a new party, which remains the 2nd highest number in the nation.

On July 27, Ohio Representative Jim Trakas introduced House Bill 638, which lets candidates who use the independent procedure choose a partisan label. Any short label that doesn’t mimic the name of a fully-qualified party is permitted. Thus, labels such as “Green” or “Libertarian” would be permitted. A slight majority of states already let candidates who use the independent petition method choose such a label.

Since the existing Ohio procedures for new parties are so difficult (none has qualified since 2000), minor party candidates in Ohio almost always use the independent procedure. But under the old law, their campaigns are handicapped because the appropriate party label is missing. For example, this year, both the Green Party and the Libertarian Party used the independent procedure to put their gubernatorial nominees on the November ballot. But both are stuck with the silly label “Other-party candidate”. If HB 638 passes, in the future they would have the proper label.

Meanwhile, the Libertarian Party’s lawsuit against the new party procedures is still pending in the 6th circuit. The hearing was on September 14, 2005. A decision could come at any time.

North Carolina House Bill 1024 passed the legislature on July 26. It lets 10 counties and 10 cities experiment with Instant-Runoff voting, in local elections in 2007 and 2008.

The Delaware Attorney General recently ruled that fusion is legal between a major party and a minor party. Specifically, he ruled that the state must print Karen Hartley-Nagle’s name on the Democratic primary ballot for U.S. House, even though she is already the Independent Party’s nominee for that office.

In 1994, the Delaware Attorney General had ruled that fusion between a major party and a minor party is illegal. However, in 1999, the 3rd circuit had ruled that if a state permits fusion between two major parties, it must permit it between a major and a minor party. Delaware is in the 3rd circuit. Since Delaware for some time has been permitting fusion between two minor parties, the state had no choice but to permit it between a major and minor party this year.

Karen Hartley-Nagle is a registered Democrat who had been an Independent Party nominee for the legislature in 2004. She is not expected to win the Democratic primary for U.S. House this year, but she will be on the November ballot as the Independent Party’s nominee regardless.

Rasmussen Reports released a poll of the Texas gubernatorial race on July 24. It shows Republican Rick Perry 40%, independent Carole Strayhorn 20%, independent Kinky Friedman 19%, Democrat Chris Bell 13%. The poll did not ask respondents about the Libertarian nominee, James Warner.