California Governor Vetoes Electoral College Bill
September 30th, 2006On September 30, California Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed AB 2948. See 3 posts down for a description of the bill.
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Media Believes Senator Lieberman Injured by Ballot PlacementSeptember 30th, 2006Connecticut, like most states, does not treat all candidates equally, on the matter of ballot position. Major party nominees are automatically placed in the best spots on the ballot; then come previously qualified minor parties; then new parties; then independent candidates. A minority of states, including all states in the 8th circuit, do give each party and each candidate an equal opportunity to appear on the best spot on the ballot. Courts outside the 8th circuit, for the most part, have refused to rule discriminatory ballot placement laws unconstitutonal, on the absurd grounds that it doesn’t make any difference. News reports from the Connecticut U.S. Senate race make it clear that everyone in Connecticut who follows this issue does believe that ballot placement makes a difference in that race. There is speculation that the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, who will enjoy the best spot on the ballot (because the Republican Party won the 2002 gubernatorial election) will get an advantage from his ballot position. There is also consensus that Senator Lieberman will suffer from appearing 6th on the ballot, behind the lines reserved for the Democratic, Republican, Green, Constitution and Libertarian Parties (there is no Libertarian on the ballot for US Senate, but there are Libertarians on the ballot for certain other statewide offices, so in towns using the party-column style, a blank Libertarian square will appear above Lieberman). Also, in certain legislative districts in Connecticut, as well as one congressional district, the Working Families Party is a ballot-qualified party for those district offices, and it will also appear above Lieberman, even though it also lacks a U.S. Senate candidate. New Hampshire Court Upsets Alphabet PlanSeptember 29th, 2006On September 28, a lower New Hampshire state court invalidated the Secretary of State’s plan for a fairer order of candidates on the ballot. Back in August, the State Supreme Court had ruled that all candidates must have an equal chance for the best spot on the ballot. This affected the order of party columns, and it also affected the order of candidates’ names, in multi-winner districts (some New Hampshire state house districts elect as many as 9 representatives). Since the New Hampshire legislature did not pass any new law on the subject of ballot order, the Secretary of State had proposed that the old alphabetical listing should be altered, in this fashion: he would randomly choose a letter of the alphabet. For this year’s general election, he chose “k”. Then, he proposed that all candidates with a surname starting with “k” should be listed first, but after that, the normal alphabet would again prevail, so that candidates with surnames starting with “a” would follow the candidates whose surnames start with “k”. The lower state court ruling said that plan isn’t good enough, because it still leaves candidates with surnames at the beginning of the alphabet better off than candidates with surnames at the end. Schwarzenegger Vetoes Electoral College BillSeptember 29th, 2006California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed AB 2948 on Saturday, September 30. This is the bill that would have authorized California to join a compact with other willing states. Once states containing a majority of electoral votes had signed the compact, these states would pledge to appoint presidential electors pledged to the national popular vote winner. Strange Florida Law on Late VacanciesSeptember 29th, 2006On September 29, Florida Congressman Mark Foley resigned his seat and withdrew as a candidate for re-election, even though he had won the Florida Republican primary on September 5. Under Florida law, his name will remain on the November ballot. However, if the voters elect him, the actual winner will be the individual (whose name was not on the ballot) chosen by the Republican Party’s district 16 committee. A Republican state legislator, Joe Negron, has already declared he wants that nomination. Nader Sues Ohio over Restriction on Who can CirculateSeptember 29th, 2006On September 29, 2006, Ralph Nader filed a lawsuit against Ohio’s law that requires circulators to be registered voters. The Ohio law on this subject is clearly unconstitutional, because in 1999 the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that states cannot require initiative circulators to be registered voters. Nader v Blackwell, 2:06cv821. The case is not moot because Nader (who was injured by this law in 2004) is suing for damages (of $1). An earlier lawsuit filed by Nader supporters in 2004 did not ever get a substantive ruling, because the judge refused to rule, on the grounds that some of Nader’s circulators had been deceptive about their domicile. Pennsylvania Has 3 Soon-to-be-Resolved Ballot Access Cases PendingSeptember 29th, 2006Pennsylvania courts are mulling over three issues, all related to whether the Green Party statewide nominees will be on this year’s ballot: (1) the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will soon decide how many valid signatures are needed this year for statewide office; (2) the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was asked to decide (on September 29) whether the petition-checking process this year was valid, and whether costs should be assessed against the Greens if they were; (3) the US Court of Appeals is still considering whether to rehear the constitutional ballot access case; that rehearing has been pending since Sep. 5. Arizona Libertarian Court Hearing Oct. 2 on Missing Write-InsSeptember 29th, 2006Three Arizona Libertarian candidates, and the party, sued in state court on September 28, over Maricopa County’s failure to tally all write-ins at the party’s primary on September 12. Two State Senate candidates are each short two write-ins in order to be nominated, and a candidate for Justice of the Peace is short one write-in. Unopposed write-in candidates at party primaries must not only outpoll any opponents, they must receive a certain number of write-ins, to be considered nominated. Maricopa County already found some more write-ins to enable one of the party’s congressional candidates to be nominated. The case is Arizona Libertarian Party v Brewer, Superior Ct., Maricopa Co., cv-2006-14637. A hearing is set for 10 am, Oct. 2. All Briefs Now Filed in Alabama Ballot Access CaseSeptember 29th, 2006All briefs have now been submitted in the Alabama ballot access case, Swanson v State. The 11th circuit case number is 06-13643. The case challenges the number of signatures required for minor party and non-presidential independent candidates, and the early June petition deadline. The case took 4 years to get through the U.S. District Court. Republican National Convention to be in MinnesotaSeptember 28th, 2006The Republican Party’s national convention in 2008 will be in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The party announced this decision on September 27. Democrats haven’t chosen their city yet. This is only the 2nd time Minnesota will have hosted a major party presidential convention. See the June 1, 2006 Ballot Access News for a chart showing the locations and dates of post-Civil War major party national conventions.
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