Federal Case Over Size of California Assembly Heard on January 21

January 26th, 2009

A U.S. District Court in Sacramento heard arguments in Warnken v Schwarzenegger, 2:08cv-2891, on January 21. The case is very unusual. It argues that the U.S. Constitution guarantees that U.S. citizens have a right to have a meaningful opportunity to communicate with their state legislators. Then, it argues that because California has an average of 424,135 residents in each Assembly district, it is impossible for an ordinary person to have that communication with his or her legislator. No other state has an average population greater than 139,360 in a lower house state legislative chamber. See www.californiacommonwealth.com for more about the lawsuit.

The judge did not dismiss the case, and said he would study Warnken’s brief before ruling on the state’s motion to dismiss. The state argues that Warnken doesn’t have standing.



FEC Releases Presidential Vote Totals

January 26th, 2009

After every presidential election, the Federal Election Commission calculates the popular vote for president. Here is the FEC’s tally for 2008. Thanks to Tony Roza for the link.

The FEC doesn’t show any write-ins for presidential candidates unless the state elections office tabulated those write-ins. That is why no write-ins are shown for anyone in Alabama, even though the Secretary of State put up the county write-in tallies on his web page. Since the Secretary of State’s office itself didn’t total up state totals, the FEC ignored the county write-in returns from Alabama.

Also, the FEC doesn’t list any presidential candidate who wasn’t on the ballot in at least one state.

Another State Has Bill for National Popular Vote Plan

January 26th, 2009

Besides the 8 states already listed in a blog post yesterday, Vermont also has a bill to establish the National Popular Vote Plan. It is S 34.

Libertarian Hopes to Qualify for Special New York U.S. House Election

January 26th, 2009

Eric Sundwall, a leader of the New York Libertarian Party, plans to make a formal announcement of his candidacy for U.S. House, 20th district, in the upcoming special election. The seat is vacant because the incumbent, Kirsten Gillibrand, resigned to become a U.S. Senator.

Sundwall will need 3,500 valid signatures, the be collected in only twelve days. The start date has not been determined yet.

Georgia Elections Director Submits Erroneous Affidavit in Coffield Ballot Access Case

January 26th, 2009

A ballot access lawsuit is currently pending in U.S. District Court in Georgia, against the procedures for an independent candidate for U.S. House to get on the ballot. The state has submitted an affidavit from Wesley B. Tailor, Georgia’s Elections Director, which lists minor party and independent candidates who have successfully petitioned in Georgia in the last 30 years. The purpose of the affidavit is to show that Georgia ballot access procedures are not unduly difficult.

The affidavit erroneously says that one independent candidate for the U.S. House qualified in 1982 “in accordance with the procedure outlined in the O.C.G.A. sections 21-2-170 and 21-2-180.” However, the independent who qualified for the U.S. House in 1982, Billy McKinney (father of Cynthia McKinney) did not qualify in accordance with the cited sections. Those sections say that a petition signed by 5% of the number of registered voters is needed. But McKinney got on the ballot with a petition of approximately 1% of the registered voters. The normal 5% petition was not in effect in 1982 in the 4th and 5th districts, because a 3-judge U.S. District Court had redrawn the boundaries of those two districts in the summer of 1982, leaving no time for anyone to submit a 5% petition.

The affidavit also says that the Reform Party successfully completed a statewide petition in 1998, so that its nominee for Lieutenant Governor, Michael Novosel, appeared on the ballot. Actually, Novosel was on the ballot in 1998 with no petition needed, since the Reform Party had met the vote test in 1996 to be on the statewide ballot automatically.

The affidavit also says that an independent candidate for Commissioner of Labor, William Costa, successfully petitioned in 2002. Actually Costa was the Libertarian Party nominee, and appeared on the ballot automatically because the Libertarian Party has automatic ballot status for statewide office and the Libertarian Party had nominated him.

Attorneys for the plaintiff-candidate Faye Coffield will attempt to bring this information to the Court.

Arizona Gets New Secretary of State

January 26th, 2009

Arizona’s new Secretary of State is Ken Bennett. He is being sworn in on the afternoon of January 26. He had been on the Prescott city council, and then had served 8 years in the State Senate. He left the State Senate in early 2007 because of term limits. He is a Republican. He was appointed because the previous Secretary of State, Jan Brewer, had been sworn in as Governor on January 21. Arizona doesn’t have a Lieutenant Governor, and provides that the Secretary of State becomes Governor when the previous Governor leaves in the middle of the term. Previous Governor Janet Napolitano resigned to serve in the federal cabinet.

Indonesia’s Constitutional Court Mulls Over Independent Presidential Candidates

January 26th, 2009

Indonesia holds presidential elections, but does not permit independent presidential candidates. According to this news story, a lawsuit is currently pending in Indonesia’s Constitutional Court, over whether the ban on independent presidential candidates violates the Constitution.

In the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1974 that the Constitution requires states to provide for ballot access for independent candidates. At the time, 12 states made it impossible for anyone to be an independent presidential candidate, but those bans were all removed after the 1974 decision, which was called Storer v Brown.

National Popular Vote Plan Bill Has Maine Hearing

January 26th, 2009

The National Popular Vote Plan bill has a hearing in the Maine joint Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee on Wednesday, January 28, at 1 pm in Room 437 of the State House. The bill is LD 56.

Arkansas House Moves Presidential Primary from February to May

January 26th, 2009

On January 22, the Arkansas House voted unanimously to move the presidential primary from February to May. The bill is HB 1021.

Slightly Higher Limits on Contributions for Federal Office

January 26th, 2009

On January 22, the Federal Election Commission raised the limits on how much money individuals may contribute to candidates for federal office, and to national party committees. The limit on a contribution to a candidate had been $2,300 in 2008, but now it is $2,400. The limit on how much an individual can contribute to a national political party has been raised from $28,500 to $30,400. The FEC is empowered to increase these limits for inflation.

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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.