Wayne A. Root, one of the candidates for the Libertarian Party presidential nomination, is setting out to telephone every Libertarian Party delegate to the May national convention. Since not all states have even finalized their list of delegates, he is working with an even more expansive list, a list of potential delegates plus actual delegates, which has over 1,000 names on it. Others may be able to contradict me, but I doubt that anyone seeking any minor party’s presidential nomination has ever actually done that very time-consuming and worthwhile task. Perhaps major party presidential candidates, back in past times when a large share of major party national convention delegates were unpledged, made a similar effort.

On April 28, the U.S. Supreme Court mostly upheld Indiana’s law requiring voters at the polls to show a photo Government-ID. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court, and his opinion was co-signed by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy. His opinion is 21 pages long. See here for the opinion.

Justice Antonin Scalia concurred, saying the law is always constitutional, and his concurrence was signed by Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. Scalia wrote 6 pages.

Justice David Souter write a dissent, co-signed by Justice Ruth Breyer. which is 30 pages. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote his own dissent, which is 5 pages.

The conclusion reached by the Court as a whole is that the law may be unconstitutional as applied to a small number of voters who must incur cost in order to obtain the ID, but that since this case has no such voters as plaintiffs, it fails to reach that claim. Another lawsuit with that particular type of voter as a plaintiff may reach it in the future. Stevens’ decision says, “While it is true that obtaining a birth certificate carries with it a financial cost, the record does not provide even a rough estimate of how many indigent voters lack copies of their birth certificates. Supposition based on extensive Internet research is not an adequate substitute for admissible evidence subject to cross-examination in constitutional litigation.” (Footnote 20). This important footnote provides a guidepath for future litigants.

All of the decisions in this case (the court’s opinion, the concurrence, and the dissent) speak about the ballot access precedents. One encouraging sign is that Justice Scalia acknowledged the Storer v Brown test, that ballot access laws that are seldom used are unconstitutional. That test, created by the Court in 1974, frequently gets overlooked by lower courts, particularly courts in Georgia that close their eyes to the evidence that no minor party has ever managed to qualify a candidate for US House of Representatives. Having the test reiterated in a 2008 decision will help persuade lower courts that the test should be noted and used.

On April 18, the West Virginia Constitution Party filed a federal lawsuit to get access for its petitioners to work in Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park. The case is Constitution Party of W.V. v Jezioro. The party is represented by the Rutherford Institute. State officials barred petitioning from last year’s National Hunting and Fishing Day festivities at that park, and the party hopes to prevent that from happening again.

The party has 11,000 signatures on its statewide petition, which carries the name of stand-in candidates for president and vice-president, and the party’s gubernatorial candidate. Since the petition requires 15,118, the party will probably be unable to complete the petition by the May deadline that applies to non-presidential candidates. The petition won’t be wasted, because it can still be used for president if it is finished by August 1. West Virginia irrationally requires petitions for office other than president to be submitted in May, but presidential petitions are due much later. A party remains on the ballot if it polls 1% for Governor, though, so it is a disappointment of the party can’t qualify for the gubernatorial race.

The same outcome affected the Libertarian Party in 2004 in West Virginia. It got on the ballot for president, but not Governor. The party filed a lawsuit in 2004 to challenge the May deadline, in state court, but the State Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

The Constitution Party vote on April 26 for vice-president was: Darrell Castle 389, Scott Bradley 58, Don Grundmann 43.7, Mad Max Riekse 13.3, Susan Ducey 8.

42 of Don Grundmann’s votes came from California.

Scott Bradley got votes as follows: Colorado 3, Illinois 2, Iowa 7, Louisiana 9, Missouri 2, Nebraska 5, New Jersey 2, Ohio 1, Oregon 1, Pennsylvania 3, South Carolina 1, Texas 7, Utah 15. Utah changed its votes from favorite son Bradley, to Castle, at the end of the roll call. Thanks to Timothy Knibbs for this information.

A spate of news articles on April 27 cover Rush Limbaugh’s recent boasts that he has influenced many Republicans to re-register as Democrats, in order to boost Hillary Clinton’s vote and thereby injure the Democratic Party. Here is an article from the San Francisco Chronicle. Although there is little evidence, the evidence that exists is significant. For example, an exit poll from Pennsylvania showed that 41% of the self-identified Republicans who had registered Democratic to vote in this month’s primary, and who had voted for Hillary Clinton, also said they would not be supportive of her in the general election.

This is a fertile field for political science and journalistic research, and it may influence court decisions when the constitutionality of open primaries is challenged by political parties.

The April 26 Atlanta Journal-Constitution has this story about Bob Barr’s campaign for the Libertarian presidential nomination. Thanks to Jack Dean for the link.

The Constitution Party’s vice-presidential candidate is Darrell Castle, an attorney from Memphis, Tennessee. He won the nomination on the first ballot. The key factor in his victory was that presidential nominee Chuck Baldwin asked the convention to choose Castle. Also, Mary Starrett told the convention that she didn’t want the vice-presidential nomination.

On April 26, the North Carolina Green Party chose delegates to the national convention. The delegates comprise 5 pledged to Cynthia McKinney, 2 to Jesse Johnson, and one to Kent Mesplay. Thanks to Kai Schwandes for this news. Among those seeking the Green nomination, McKinney so far is leading in every state that has already chosen delegates. The convention will be July 10-13 in Chicago.

The most significant vice-presidential candidates for the Constitution Party are Law Professor Scott Bradley of Utah (the party’s US Senate candidate in 2006), attorney Darrell Castle of Tennessee, and Mary Starrett of Oregon (the party’s 2006 gubernatorial nominee). Alan Keyes has said he will not seek the vice-presidential nomination. A few other vice-presidential candidates have also announced, but the three with the most support are the three named above. The convention will choose one late Saturday afternoon (April 26).

Past Constitution Party vice-presidential candidates have been: 1992 Albion W. Knight; 1996 Herbert W. Titus; 2000 J. Curtis Frazier; 2004 Chuck Baldwin.

On April 24, peace activist Cindy Sheehan began her drive to collect 10,198 valid signatures, to get on the ballot as an independent candidate for U.S. House in San Francisco. She garnered considerable publicity; see here for the San Francisco Chronicle story.

California has one of the strictest laws in the nation for independent candidates for U.S. House. No one has qualified for that office as an independent since 1996, when Steven Wheeler qualified in the 22nd district (Monterey area). Sheehan had an alternate path to the November ballot. She could have been a write-in candidate in the Green Party’s primary, or the Peace & Freedom Party primary. She would have needed 1,847 write-ins to win either of those nominations (she couldn’t appear on either of those parties’ primary ballot because of her prior registration history). She chose the independent petition method, either because she perceived it is easier, or because she is more comfortable as an Independent than as a Green or Peace & Freedom nominee.