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August 31st, 2006
The Idaho League of Women Voters’ debate for Idaho’s First Congressional District will include the United Party nominee, as well as the Democratic and Republican nominees. It will be held on October 24.
August 31st, 2006
On August 31, the Illinois State Bd. of Elections deadlocked along party lines, on whether to certify Socialist Equality Party candidate Joe Parnarauskis for the November ballot. He is running for state senate, 52nd district. He submitted 4,991 signatures. The law requires 5% of the last vote cast. However, the law isn’t clear about whether that means 5% of the vote for that particular office in the last election, or 5% of the number of people who put a ballot in the box (within that district) in the last election. Andrew Spiegel, attorney for Parnarauskis, presented evidence that the Board has been calculating the number of signatures incorrectly for the last decade or so. The Board voted to reconvene on September 7, after studying the matter.
Aside from the matter of the dispute on how to calculate the number of signatures, Parnarauskis would also be on the ballot if the Board would accept some petition sheets in which the candidate forgot to include “52nd State Senate district” in the Petition Heading. However, the body of the text includes “52nd State Senate district”. The four Republican Board members voted that the clerical error in the title of the petition is not fatal, but the four Democrats voted that it is fatal.
August 31st, 2006
On August 29, a group of naturalized citizens, and several organizations that support them, sued in U.S. District Court to overturn an Ohio law passed last year. That law requires naturalized citizens to bring their naturalization papers with them when they vote at the polls, to avoid a challenge. The lawsuit points out that most naturalized citizens keep their papers in a safety deposit box, that if they are lost, it takes over a year to replace them, along with a $200 fee. Also, the lawsuit wonders why Ohio won’t be satisfied with a U.S. passport, as proof of citizenship. The case is Boustani v Blackwell.
August 31st, 2006
On August 31, the Illinois Bd. of Elections unanimously certified the statewide Green Party petition. Also, in North Dakota, the Libertarian Party candidate for US Senate has 1,300 signatures, and since only 1,000 are needed, and since North Dakota has no voter registration, he is safely on the ballot. This means that every state that has statewide elections this year will have minor party or independent candidates on the statewide ballot, except Alabama, and with Pennsylvania and New Mexico still unsettled.
August 31st, 2006
The Maryland League of Women Voters is hosting a televised debate for two candidates for the U.S. Senate Democratic nomination, on the evening of August 31. On August 30, three other Democratic candidates for that nomination held a protest in front of the League’s headquarters. The three protesting candidates pointed out that if the League had imposed a 15% poll requirement in 1994, that even Ellen Sauberbrey would have been excluded. She was only polling 14% at the end of August 1994. Yet she went on to win the mid-September 1994 Republican primary for Governor.
Each state League of Women Voters sets its own policy, on whom to invite into televised debates. The Pennsylvania League has a tradition of inviting everyone who is on the ballot into its televised candidate debates, for example.
August 31st, 2006
Law Professor Rick Hasen of Loyola Law School (Los Angeles) writes the nation’s foremost election law blog, and is one of the two co-founders of the Election Law Journal. He wrote a guest column for findlaw.com on August 30, and suggested that the U.S. Supreme Court should rethink its 1974 election law decision, Storer v Brown. Hasen said that “sore loser” laws appear not to be needed. He cited the current Connecticut U.S. Senate race to show that “sore loser” laws are not really essential.
August 31st, 2006
On August 30, a lower state court ruled that even though major parties in Colorado can nominate candidates who haven’t been a member of that party for a year, qualified minor parties do not have the same right. The decision means that the Libertarian Party nominee for Sheriff of Arapahoe County is off the ballot. The party is appealing to the Colorado Supreme Court. The case is Libertarian Party of Colorado v Doty, 06-cv-4768, Arapahoe Dist. Court.
Even the Colorado major parties were once hampered by the one-year rule, but the Colorado Democratic Party won a ruling in 1988 that the one-year rule is unconstitutional, as applied to parties that don’t want it applied to them. In the current case, the judge refused to apply the 1988 ruling to the Libertarian Party because, back in 1991, before the Libertarian Party was a qualified minor party, the State Supreme Court had upheld the one-year disaffiliation law as applied to unqualified parties.
August 30th, 2006
The South Carolina Election Commission still hasn’t finished checking the Labor Party’s petition, but should be done the first week in September. The party needed 10,000 and submitted 16,000 several months ago. The Labor Party is organized nationally, but had never tried to qualify for the ballot in any state, until it decided to qualify in South Carolina. If the petition is approved, the party will be entitled to nominate candidates in 2007 and 2008, but not 2006, since the petition was submitted beyond this year’s May 7 deadline.
August 30th, 2006
On August 30, the 2nd circuit reaffirmed the U.S. District Court decision in Lopez Torres v New York State Board of Elections, 06-6035. The 2nd circuit agreed with the US District Court that New York ballot access laws, for candidates for Delegate to County Judicial Conventions, are too difficult. They require 500 valid signatures (per Assembly district), of party members, to be collected in 37 days. These petitions are for access to a party primary ballot.
Most ballot access litigation involves minor or new party, or independent candidate, access to the general election ballot. But a handful of states, including especially New York, Massachusetts and Maine, make candidate access to a major party primary ballot also very difficult.
This is the second time the 2nd circuit has invalidated the number of signatures needed for a candidate to get on a New York primary ballot. The first time was in 1996, in Rockefeller v Powers. That case struck down the 5% petition requirement for candidates for delegate to the Republican Party national convention.
The 2nd circuit depended on the historical record, which showed that no one was ever able to get on the primary ballot for Delegate to the County Judicial Convention, except candidates sponsored by the major party organizations.
August 30th, 2006
David Sole was nominated by the Michigan Green Party to be its U.S. Senate candidate, on August 6. Sole is also a long-time member of the Workers World Party, and is president of United Auto Workers Local 2334. Sole received the vote of 39 of the 50 delegates to the Green Party nominating convention.
The Workers World Party sometimes run candidates under its own label, but has not done so in any state this year. In California, Workers World members have sometime run in the Peace & Freedom Party’s primary, and have sometimes won PFP nominations. The Workers World Party ran a presidential candidate in 2004 under its own name, and also persuaded the Liberty Union Party of Vermont to nominate that presidential candidate.
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Issues
available: |
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2008:
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2007:
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2006:
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2005:
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2004:
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2003:
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2002:
- December
2002 Issue
(V:18 N:8)
- November
2002 Issue
(V:18 N:7)
- October
1, 2002 Issue (V:18 N:6)
- September
1, 2002 Issue
(V:18 N:5)
- August
1, 2002 issue (V:18 N:4)
- July
1, 2002 issue (V:18 N:3)
- June
1, 2002 issue (V:18 N:2)
- May
1, 2002 issue (V:18 N:1)
- April
1, 2002 issue (V:17 N:13)
- March
1, 2002 issue (V:17 N:12)
- February
1, 2002 issue (V:17 N:11)
- January
1, 2002 issue (V:17 N:10)
|
2001:
- December
1, 2001 issue (V:17 N:9)
- November
1, 2001 issue (V:17 N:8)
- October
1, 2001 issue (V:17 N:7)
- September
1, 2001 issue (V:17 N:6)
- August
1, 2001 issue (V:17 N:5)
- July
1, 2001 issue (V:17 N:4)
- June
1, 2001 issue (V:17 N:3)
- May
1, 2001 issue (V:17 N:2)
- April
1, 2001 issue (V:17 N:1)
- March
1, 2001 issue (V:16 N:12)
- February
1, 2001 issue (V:16 N:11)
- January
1, 2001 issue (V:16 N:10)
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2000:
- December
5, 2000 issue (V:16 N:9)
- November
16, 2000 issue (V:16 N:8)
- October
1, 2000 issue (V:16 N:7)
- September
1, 2000 issue (V:16 N:6)
- August
1, 2000 issue (V:16 N:5)
- July
1, 2000 issue (V:16 N:4)
- June
1, 2000 issue (V:16 N:3)
- May
1, 2000 issue (V:16 N:2)
- April
1, 2000 issue (V:16 N:1)
- March
1, 2000 issue (V:15 N:12)
- February
1, 2000 issue (V:15 N:11)
- January
1, 2000 issue (V:15 N:10)
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1999:
- December
1, 1999 issue (V:15 N:9)
- November
1, 1999 issue (V:15 N:8)
- October
1, 1999 issue (V:15 N:7)
- September
1, 1999 issue (V:15 N:6)
- August
3, 1999 issue (V:15 N:5)
- July
3, 1999 issue (V:15 N:4)
- June
1, 1999 issue (V:15 N:3)
- May
3, 1999 issue (V:15 N:2)
- April
3, 1999 issue (V:15 N:1)
- March
6, 1999 issue (V:14 N:12)
- February
6, 1999 issue (V:14 N:11)
- January
6, 1999 issue (V:14 N:10)
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1998:
- December
8, 1998 issue (V:14 N:9)
- November
8, 1998 issue (V:14 N:8)
- October
4, 1998 issue (V:14 N:7)
- September
4, 1998 issue (V:14 N:6)
- August
3, 1998 issue (V:14 N:5)
- July
3, 1998 issue (V:14 N:4)
- June
3, 1998 issue (V:14 N:3)
- May
7, 1998 issue (V:14 N:2)
- April
5, 1998 issue (V:14 N:1)
- March
8, 1998 issue (V:13 N:12)
- February
8, 1998 issue (V:13 N:11)
- January
5, 1998 issue (V:13 N:10)
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1997:
- December
5, 1997 issue (V:13 N:9)
- November
1, 1997 issue (V:13 N:8)
- October
6, 1997 issue (V:13 N:7)
- September
6, 1997 issue (V:13 N:6)
- August
4, 1997 issue (V:13 N:5)
- July
2, 1997 issue (V:13 N:4)
BAN.
changed to a 12 issue per year schedule.
- June
2, 1997 issue (V:13 N:3)
- May
5, 1997 issue (V:13 N:2)
- April
7, 1997 issue (V:13 N:1)
- March
10, 1997 issue (V:12 N:13)
- February
10, 1997 issue (V:12 N:12)
- January
12, 1997 issue (V:12 N:11)
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1996:
- December
12, 1996 issue (V:12 N:10)
- November
12, 1996 issue (V:12 N:9)
- October
12, 1996 issue (V:12 N:8)
- September
9, 1996 issue (V:12 N:7)
- August
12, 1996 issue (V:12 N:6)
- July
20, 1996 issue (V:12 N:5)
- June
26, 1996 issue (V:12 N:4)
- May
28, 1996 issue (V:12 N:3)
- May
3, 1996 issue (V:12 N:2)
- April
3, 1996 issue (V:12 N:1)
- March
6, 1996 issue (V:11 N:13)
- February
7, 1996 issue (V:11 N:12)
- January
14, 1996 issue (V:11 N:11)
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1995:
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1994:
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1993:
- 1993 Issues
not yet available online
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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
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