California Bill Would Help Write-in Candidates

March 25th, 2007

Senator Ron Calderon, chair of the California Senate Elections Committee, has introduced SB 439. It would provide that when write-ins are being counted, the intent of the voter should prevail, even if the voter casting the write-in vote didn’t follow all the instructions. This bill would assist write-in candidates in elections that use optical scan ballots (i.e., ballots which ask voters to fill in an oval or complete an arrow).



New Mexico Legislature Adjourns Without Considering Fusion, National Popular Vote, or Anti-Straight-Ticket Voting Bills

March 24th, 2007

The New Mexico legislature adjourned for the year on March 17. Bills to legalize fusion, to pass the National Popular Vote Plan, and to abolish straight-ticket voting, all failed to make any headway.

“National Popular Vote” Introduced in 3 More States

March 24th, 2007

During the last two weeks, bills to implement the “National Popular Vote Plan” for presidential elections have been introduced in three more states. The bills are AB 384 in Nevada, SB 760 in North Carolina, and HB 3325 in Oregon. The movement in favor of this idea has now caused bills to be introduced in 36 states, an amazing accomplishment.

Tennessee Ballot Access Bills Have Hearing Date

March 24th, 2007

The Tennessee bills to establish a category in the election law for qualified minor parties will be heard in Joint State & Local Government Committees on April 3. The bills are SB288 and HB626. They require a group that wishes to be a ballot-qualified party (and to nominate by convention) to submit a petition of 2,500 signatures.

Currently, Tennessee has no “qualified minor party” provision in its election law. Either a party is a qualified major party (which requires 45,254 signatures, if it didn’t poll 5% for president or governor at either of the last two elections), or it can’t appear on the ballot at all. No party other than the Democratic and Republican Parties has been qualified in Tennessee since 1972.

New Hampshire Bill to Ban Straight-Ticket Device Advances

March 24th, 2007

On March 21, the New Hampshire House Election Law Committee passed SB 36. It abolishes the straight-ticket device and gives New Hampshire an office-group ballot format (as opposed to party column format). The bill had already passed the State Senate.

Idaho Republicans Still Trying to Institute Registration by Party

March 23rd, 2007

A bill will be introduced in the Idaho State Senate on Monday, March 26, to create a system in which voters register into parties. The bill will not let members of parties vote in any primary other than that voter’s own party. However, the bill will require that parties permit independents to vote in any primary.

Alabama Bill for February Presidential Primary

March 23rd, 2007

On March 15, HB 358 was introduced in the Alabama House to move the presidential primary from June to February. A bill to do this had passed last year, but because it had a technical error in it, the state didn’t forward it to the U.S. Justice Department for pre-clearance under the Voting Rights Act. Therefore, the 2006 change is null and void. The error was that the 2006 bill accidentally moved the primary for all office, not just president, from June to February. The new bill, HB 358, will keep the June primary for all office except president.

Washington Primary Committee Deadlocks on Primary Date

March 23rd, 2007

Washington state law gives a committee the power to set the state’s presidential primary date. That committee met on March 23, but failed to agree on moving the primary from May to February. The Committee cannot act unless at least six members agree. The five Republicans voted for a February 5 primary, but the 4 Democrats voted for a March 18 primary. This produced a stalemate, so the primary remains in May. Some legislative leaders want to cancel it and use caucuses instead.

Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Sues to Get on Primary Ballot

March 23rd, 2007

On March 22, Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale filed a lawsuit in state court to obtain a place on this year’s Democratic primary, which is held in August. He has been elected as the Democratic nominee in every election since 1975. But this year the party refused to accept him as a candidate, since the party says Dale supported President Bush in 2004. Nothing in the Mississippi election code gives a political party the authority to evaluate the political actions of individuals who wish to run in party primaries. The case is Dale v Mississippi Democratic Party, 7th Circuit Court, 251-07-268. Thanks to Steve Rankin for this news.

Arizona Bill to Make Independent Petition Deadline Even Earlier Passes Committee

March 23rd, 2007

On March 22, the Arizona Judiciary Committee passed SB 1430. It moves the Arizona primary from mid-September to early September. Because Arizona ties the independent candidate petition deadline to the same date that primary candidates must file, the bill indirectly makes the independent candidate petition deadline earlier than it has been. The bill has already passed the Senate.

Arizona already has the 2nd earliest independent presidential petition deadline in the nation (only Texas is earlier). This bill, in some presidential election years, would have the petition due in late May instead of early June. The issue of the deadline is already pending in the 9th circuit in Nader v Brewer (briefs have been filed, but a hearing date hasn’t been set yet). It is ironic that a bill would pass, making the deadline even worse, while the issue is pending in court.

The sponsor, Senator Karen Johnson, says she doesn’t want to make things worse for independent candidates, yet so far she has failed to amend her bill. She could easily do so, by adding a provision that cuts the link between the petition deadline for independent candidates and the petition deadline for candidates getting on a primary ballot. Senator Johnson’s phone number is 602-926-3160. Please telephone her office and ask that she amend SB 1430 so that it does not injure independent candidates.

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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!

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  • 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]

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