Ron Paul Comments on Meaning of “Natural Born” Qualification for President

December 26th, 2008

http://restoretheconstitutionalrepublic.org has a comment by a Texan who says that he or she recently talked on the phone with Congressman Ron Paul about the meaning of “natural-born” in Article II, for presidential qualification. According to the comment, Paul said, “There is no law that actually defines ‘natural born’, so the argument could go on forever with thousands of different interpretations. The consensus is that he is a U.S. citizen, and therefore eligible.” Thanks to Bill Van Allen.



Wall Street Journal Editorial on Out-of-State Petitioners

December 26th, 2008

This Wall Street Journal editorial, published December 26, supports the right of individuals to circulate petitions, no matter where they live. The editorial also contains a good amount of interesting facts about how state legislatures have behaved, relative to this issue.

Civil Rights Leader Who Was One of Lyndon LaRouche Running Mates Dies

December 26th, 2008

Rev. James L. Bevel died on December 19, in Springfield, Virginia. He was 72. See this obituary. He was by far the most famous person who ever ran for vice-president on Lyndon LaRouche’s ticket. LaRouche ran as a minor party or independent candidate for president in 1976, 1984, 1988, and 1992 (LaRouche also ran in Democratic presidential primaries in some of those years). Bevel was LaRouche’s 1992 running mate. That 1992 independent ticket polled 26,333 in the nation, but almost half those votes came from Virginia. The ticket received 11,937 votes in Virginia, or .47% of the total presidential vote in that state.

South and West Expected to Gain 8 Electoral Votes for 2012

December 25th, 2008

Election Data Services has analyzed population estimates, and predicts that the census of 2010 will result in shifting eight electoral votes from the east and midwest, to the south and west. Texas is expected to gain 3 new US House seats. States gaining one new US House seat will be Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Utah. The eight states each losing one US House seat will be Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

California American Independent Party Internal Battle

December 24th, 2008

Here is the decision of the California Superior Court in King v Bowen, handed down tentatively on December 19. The case concerns the identity of the true officers of the American Independent Party of California. Judge Michael Kenny still finds procedural problems in the case, and says the issue of which party officers are valid can only be settled by the filing of a new lawsuit.

More on the Amicus of 13 States in Brewer v Nader

December 24th, 2008

As noted in yesterday’s blog post, 13 states recently submitted an amicus curiae brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking that Court to hear Arizona’s appeal in Brewer v Nader. The issues are whether out-of-staters can collect signatures in Arizona, and whether Arizona’s June 4 independent presidential petition deadline is unconstitutional.

If you live in one of the 13 states in which the Attorney General signed on to this amicus, you may wish to complaint to your state’s Attorney General. The 13 Attorneys General consist of these five Democrats: Mike McGrath of Montana (although he is is only in office for another week); Joseph Biden III of Delaware; Nancy Rogers of Ohio (although she is about to go out of office); Drew Edmondson of Oklahoma (who plans to run for Governor in 2010); and Bruce Salzburg of Wyoming.

The eight Republican Attorneys General are: Troy King of Alabama; Talis Colberg of Alaska; John Suthers of Colorado; Bill McCollum of Florida; Lawrence Wasden of Idaho; Mike Cox of Michigan; Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire; and Larry Long of South Dakota.

You might mention that if every state had a June 4 petition deadline, in the past, the Republican Party could not have run any candidates in 1854. In 1854, the Republican Party was founded on July 6, and in the fall congressional elections, it won a plurality in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Also, Theodore Roosevelt didn’t declare his candidacy as the Progressive Party nominee in 1912 until August; and Robert La Follette didn’t declare his independent progressive candidacy until July 4, 1924. So, if all states had had a deadline like Arizona, all these important political developments would have been strangled.

New Mexico Likely to Recognize Green Party

December 24th, 2008

The New Mexico law defining which groups are qualified political parties is one of the muddiest such laws in the nation. However, the New Mexico Secretary of State seems very likely to agree that the Green Party is a qualified party, entitled to its own primary, based on the party’s 45% vote for Public Regulation Commission last month. The law requires a vote of 5% for “any” office, but the 5% is calculated with the presidential total vote as the denominator. That has caused some to believe that only the vote for president counts, although a reasonable person would interpret “any office” to mean just that, any partisan office.

The Secretary of State’s office says that it can’t be certain the Green Party is ballot-qualified until the new voter registration data comes out. The law requires that a major party meet not only the vote test, but it must also have one-third of 1% of the registration, as members. However, the Green Party is extremely likely to meet this test also, since in October 2008 it had .44% of the total registration.

West Virginia Releases Write-in Votes

December 23rd, 2008

On December 23, West Virginia released its write-in totals from last month’s election. None of the qualified write-in candidates for president in West Virginia were on the ballot in any state. Bob Barr was not on the ballot in West Virginia, but he didn’t have write-in status in that state because he filed his write-in declaration one day too late.

Although the Constitution Party was on the ballot for president, it was not on for Governor. However, its candidate for Governor, Butch Paugh, polled 234 write-ins. Thanks to Brandon Henderson for this news.

13 States Ask U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Arizona’s Appeal in Nader Case

December 23rd, 2008

On December 17, Montana’s Attorney General asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Arizona’s appeal in Brewer v Nader, the case in which the 9th circuit struck down Arizona’s early June petition deadline for independent candidates, and also struck down Arizona’s ban on out-of-state circulators. Here is a copy of the brief. The brief was co-signed by Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

This amicus brief is 26 pages long, just as long as the brief Arizona itself filed. Like the Arizona brief, the amicus focuses most of its fire on the issue of out-of-state circulators. It is odd that Alabama, Delaware, Florida, and New Hampshire signed the amicus, because those four states don’t bar out-of-state petition circulators.

The brief cites the U.S. District Court decision in Oklahoma last year that upheld the ban on out-of-state circulators. Ironically, the 10th circuit reversed that decision the very day after the amicus was filed.

Senator Bill Nelson Will Again Introduce Amendment for Direct Election of President

December 23rd, 2008

According to this story in the Tampa Tribune of December 22, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson will again introduce a constitutional amendment in January, to abolish the electoral college. Nelson had introduced it in June 2008 as SJR 39, but it made no headway.

SJR 39 is worded this way: “Sec. 1. The President and Vice President shall be jointly elected by the direct vote of the qualified electors of the several States and territories and the District constituting the seat of Government of the United States. The electors in each State, territory, and the District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the legislative body where they reside.

Sec. 2. Congress may determine the time, place and manner of holding the election, the entitlement to inclusion on the ballot, and the manner in which the results of the election shall be ascertained and declared.”

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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]

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