North Carolina Ballot Access Case Loses

May 28th, 2008

On May 27, Judge Robert H. Hobgood signed a 17-page opinion, upholding North Carolina’s ballot access laws for new and previously unqualified parties. Judge Hobgood is a Superior Court Judge in Wake County. Superior Court Judges in North Carolina do not have law clerks, so it is customary for judges to ask each side to write a proposed opinion. In this case, Judge Hobgood signed the opinion that had been written by the Attorney General’s office. The only reasons this opinion mentions for upholding the petition requirement are that any lesser restriction would result in a large ballot, which would cause election-administration problems.

Since this opinion was written by the Attorney General’s office, it naturally omitted a great deal of evidence that this fear is unfounded. The plaintiffs, the Libertarian and Green Parties, will appeal.

No lower state court has ever held that its state requires too many signatures to place a party, or a candidate, on the ballot, under the constitution (whether federal constitution or state constitution). The only state courts that have ever declared the number of signatures unconstitutional have been the highest state court in that state. These instances were in New York in 1912, Michigan in 1981, Alaska in 1982, and Maryland in 2003. In all four cases, the lower courts had upheld the challenged laws.

The opinion has no immediate impact on the Libertarian Party, since it completed this year’s petition anyway. But it will keep any other party from qualifying this year. The law requires 69,734 valid signatures this year, and probably 80,000 or so in 2010.



Idaho Presidential Primary Results

May 27th, 2008

Here are Idaho presidential primary results from the Secretary of State’s page. Idaho Republican rules mean that Ron Paul will get 4 delegates. The Democratic primary is just a beauty contest, since Democratic delegates were chosen earlier by caucus.

The Libertarian and Constitution Parties are also entitled to their own primaries in Idaho, but neither party chose to participate. In any event, Idaho won’t print up a primary ballot for any party if that party has no contests for any office. Although both minor parties are nominating candidates, the single candidate who filed in each race is deemed to have won the primary.

Northern Mariana Islands Finally Gets Delegate to US House

May 27th, 2008

On May 8, President Bush signed S.2739 into law. It gives the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands a non-voting Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. Other places with such a Delegate are D.C., Puerto Rico, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam.

The Northern Mariana Islands has been working towards this goal for years. Thanks to Tony Roza for this news. The bill takes effect in time for this year’s election. Here is a news story about the candidates who have declared so far. The Executive Director of the Northern Mariana Islands Election Commission, Gregorio Sablan, has said he will run as an independent candidate. The other candidates who have announced so far are Republicans, and a Republican primary will choose a nominee.

Missouri Ballot Access Improvement Bill Didn’t Pass After All

May 27th, 2008

Unfortunately, the blog post of May 16, saying that the Missouri legislature had passed SB 797, was mistaken. The bill had passed the Senate, and then on May 14 had passed the House, but the House had added something new to the bill, so it needed to be passed by the Senate again.

On May 16, the Senate concurred in the amendments, so it appeared that the bill had passed entirely. But in Missouri, that wasn’t enough; the Senate not only had to concur in the addition, but it had to pass the bill again as a separate action. Although the bill had no opposition, the legislature went home without doing that final action. Thanks to Barbara Woodruff for pointing out the original error. The bill would have corrected the typographical error in the law that was passed in 1993. Generally a group is free to circulate a petition for recognition in Missouri before it has chosen its nominees. But the glitch means that if the group wants to run a presidential candidate, it must list the presidential candidate on the petition. Fortunately the Secretary of State permits a stand-in presidential candidate, who can be changed later.

Hillary Clinton Supports Voting Rights for Territories

May 27th, 2008

On May 24, Hillary Clinton said that she supports amending the U.S. Constitution so that U.S. citizens who live in Puerto Rico may vote in the general election for president. She had previously said that she supports that idea for Guam as well. As far as is known, no one else running for president this year has expressed the same viewpoint.

There are three classes of legally competent adult U.S. citizens who are still denied full voting rights. They are (1) residents of U.S. territories; (2) felons in almost all states and ex-felons in some states; (3) members and supporters of minor parties and independent candidates. There are advocacy groups working to solve the problems of all three groups. It would be desirable if those who are concerned about each of these problems would recognize that all three groups have much in common.

The supreme irony of the ban on voting for president for U.S. citizens who live in the territories is that U.S. citizens who live in foreign countries may vote in U.S. elections, if those citizens have ever at one time lived in a U.S. state. They may leave the U.S. and continue voting by absentee ballot for decades, even though they never again set foot in the U.S. Yet if such overseas absentee voters were then to move to a U.S. territory, they would at that moment lose their voting rights.

Cynthia McKinney Close to Clinching Green Party Nomination

May 26th, 2008

Cynthia McKinney now has the support of over 50% of the delegates to the Green Party national convention who have been chosen so far. Although not all state Green Parties have chosen their delegates, most of them have, so it is very likely that she will obtain the nomination. The national convention is July 10-13 in Chicago. This post originally said she had clinched the nomination, but that was not accurate.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Article on Libertarian Convention

May 26th, 2008

Here is the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s article about the results of the presidential and vice-presidential balloting at the Libertarian national convention. Normally, a minor party presidential nominating convention gets decent coverage in the newspapers of the host city for that convention, but very little coverage in other newspapers. The recent Libertarian convention is somewhat different, with better coverage in the Atlanta newspapers than in the Denver newspapers.

Pennsylvania League of Women Voters Fires Back at Pennsylvania Supreme Court

May 26th, 2008

Here is an article about the press statement of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, responding to threats against the League by the current Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Last week the League had filed a federal lawsuit, charging the Pennsylvania Supreme Court with bargaining with the Pennsylvania legislature over lawsuit outcomes and the pay raise bill for judges. In return, the current Chief Justice had threatened that the League might be subjecting itself to sanctions. The League’s press release charges the Chief Justice with violating the right of citizens to petition their government.

The Pennsylvania League of Women Voters has consistently invited all ballot-qualified candidates for statewide office into candidate debates that it sponsors. It is one of the most friendly state Leagues, relative to minor parties and independent candidates.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has continued to support a system in which minor party and independent candidates who try to get on the ballot, and then fail to submit enough valid signatures, must pay tens of thousands of dollars to pay for the cumbersome judicial process that removes them from the ballot.

Libertarian Party Nominated Wayne Allen Root for VP

May 25th, 2008

The second-ballot vote was

Root: 289
Kubby: 255
Williams: 14
NOTA: 6

1st Ballot Vice Presidential Vote: Libertarian Party

May 25th, 2008

Root 276
Kubby 209
Williams 40
Burns 20
Lightfoot 14
Schwartz 1

Bob Barr had endorsed Root for VP. It will go to a second ballot.

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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!

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 is published by and copyright by Richard Winger.