Judge Denies Injunctive Relief in California Disclosure of Contributors Case

January 29th, 2009

On January 29, U.S. District Court Judge Morrison England refused to issue an injunction against a California law that requires disclosure of the names and addresses of small donors to initiative campaigns. ProtectMarriage.com v Bowen, no. 2:09-cv-58, e.d. The case had been filed by donors to California’s Proposition 8, the ballot measure last year to eliminate same-sex marriage. A quick appeal is likely; the law requires the disclosure by February 2. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.



Congressional Bill to Treat D.C. Voters as Maryland Residents

January 29th, 2009

Congressman Dana Rohrbacher introduced HR 665 on January 23. Read the bill by going to http://thomas.loc.gov and inputting the bill number. It provides that for presidential and congressional elections, the District of Columbia should be treated as though it were part of Maryland. It abolishes the office of Delegate to Congress for the District of Columbia, and says that at first, D.C. would be its own U.S. House district, but the election would be run under Maryland election laws. If, in the future, the population of D.C. is greater than the population of an average House district in Maryland, then the greater part of D.C. would be a district, and the excess would be part of a Maryland U.S. House district.

Montana Bills for Registration by Party are Tabled

January 29th, 2009

Two Montana bills to institute registration by party have been tabled. HB 248, by Rep. Ken Peterson (R-Billings) would have set up closed primaries, but it was tabled on January 28. SB 186, by Senator Joe Balyeat (R-Bozeman), which would have set up voluntary registration by party, was tabled on January 26.

Senator Balyeat also has SB 243, which would propose a constitutional amendment requiring that run-offs be held after any general election in which no one got at least 50% of the vote. The Senate State Administration heard the bill on January 28 and has not yet acted.

New Arizona Registration Data Shows More Independent Voters

January 29th, 2009

Arizona’s Secretary of State has posted new data on the number of registered voters. Compared to October 22, 2008, the share of voters registered “independent” has risen. Independents were 27.60% in October 2008, but are now at 28.01%.

Democrats declined from 34.22% to 34.10%. Republicans declined from 37.44% to 37.15%. Libertarians were static, at .61% in both tallies. Greens went up from .13% to .14%. Parties whose registration is below .667% in November 2009 will be removed from the ballot. Assuming the number of registered voters stays the same between now and then, Libertarians will need another 1,845 members, and Greens will need another 16,273 members.

Sponsor Found for Utah Ballot Access Bill

January 29th, 2009

Utah Representative Carl Wimmer (R-Herriman) says he will introduce a bill to ease the definition of “political party”, from a group that polled 2% of the statewide vote in the last election, to a group that polled 2% of the statewide vote in either of the last two elections.

Under existing law, it is fairly easy for a party to pass the vote test in a presidential election year, because there are always five or six statewide offices up in presidential years. But it is difficult for a minor party to remain ballot-qualified in a midterm year, because there is never any statewide race up in mid-term years, except U.S. Senate (and in one third of the midterm years, there is no statewide office up at all).

When there is no statewide office up at all, the only way any party can remain ballot-qualified is to poll approximately 6% for one of the U.S. House races. The vote test applies to any office (whether statewide or not), but the denominator for the percentage is the statewide vote for all 3 U.S. House races put together.

In 2008, both the Constitution and Libertarian Parties met the vote test and are now ballot-qualified. The Constitution Party did the good work of finding a sponsor for the 2009 bill.

Arkansas Ballot Access Bill Introduced

January 28th, 2009

The bill to ease the definition of “political party” has been introduced in the Arkansas legislature. It is HB 1247, sponsored by Representative Richard Carroll (Green-North Little Rock) and Senator Mary Anne Salmon (D-North Little Rock). The bill changes the vote test from President/Governor, to any statewide race. It also says when a party meets the vote test, it is automatically qualified for the next two elections.

Philadelphia Inquirer Runs Ralph Nader Op-Ed on Pennsylvania Ballot Access

January 28th, 2009

The Philadelphia Inquirer of January 28 has this op-ed by Ralph Nader, on Pennsylvania’s unique system of charging candidates who fail to get on the ballot with the costs associated with checking their petitions. Thanks to Oliver Hall for the link.

North Carolina Ballot Access Bill Expands

January 28th, 2009

Earlier it was reported here that North Carolina Senator Jim Jacumin planned to introduce a bill, lowering the number of signatures for independent candidates. Senator Jacumin now plans to expand the bill so that it also lowers the number of signatures for minor parties. Furthermore, the bill will delete the requirement that declared write-in candidates must submit a petition of 500 signatures. North Carolina is the only state that requires declared write-in candidates to submit any petition. The logic for a petition to be a qualified write-in candidate is faulty. Petitions exist to keep ballots from being crowded with too many names, but write-in candidates’ names do not get printed on ballots, so they don’t make ballots too lengthy.

Mystery Behind 2008 Florida Green Party Candidates May be Solved by Court Hearing

January 27th, 2009

Last year, five individuals filed to run for the Florida legislature in the Green Party primary. None of the five were known to leaders of the Green Party, and all of the five seemed to avoid any attempts to communicate with them by the press and by Green Party leaders. The suspicion was that the five had been recruited by Republican Party activists to enter particular races that were perceived as close. As it turned out, none of the five nominees tipped the outcome; the winner in all five legislative races received an absolute majority. Later, the state chair of the Green Party sued one of the candidates who appeared unable to pay the rather large filing fee, to find out who had paid that fee. The case has a hearing on February 19 in state court in Pasco County. King v Roman, 51-2008-ca-8091-ws.

Buffalo News Story on Honolulu School Teacher Who Remembers Obama’s Birth

January 27th, 2009

The Buffalo News ran a feature story on January 20 that consists of an interview with Barbara Nelson, who now lives in Kenmore, New York, near Buffalo. She lived in Honolulu in 1961 and remembers hearing about Barack Obama’s birth in the Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women and Children. She was friends with a retired obstetrician who relayed the story that a woman whose first name was Stanley had just given birth to a child with a wonderfully musical name. Here is the story. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link. In another interview after the story was published, Nelson said the Buffalo News had misquoted her when it said she said that her friend the obstetrician had himself delivered baby Obama. He was aware of the birth but he was not the doctor who delivered the baby.

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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.