Eric Sundwall Ballot Position in Danger

March 25th, 2009

Eric Sundwall, Libertarian Party nominee in the special U.S. House election in New York’s 20th district, was removed from the ballot on March 25 by the Board of Elections. He collected 7,000 signatures in 10 days to meet a requirement of 3,500 signatures. But slightly over half of the signers put their mailing address on the petition without also indicating their township. Sundwall is already in court fighting the ruling. See this story.



South Carolina Bill to Make Independent Candidate Ballot Access Worse

March 25th, 2009

South Carolina Senator Harvey Peeler has introduced a bill to injure independent candidates in 3 ways: (1) independent candidates would need to file a declaration of candidacy in February, when candidates running in primaries also file a declaration; (2) signers could not sign for an independent candidate unless they had been regiistered to vote for 30 days before signing; (3) signers could not sign if they had voted in a party primary that year.

The first two parts of this bill would almost certainly be found unconstitutional. South Carolina passed a law in 1989 requiring independent candidates to file a declaration of candidacy in February, but it was invalidated by the 4th circuit in Cromer v State in 1990. And the US Supreme Court summarily affirmed a case in 1970 that had invalidated a law saying newly-registered voters can’t sign for independent candidates. That case was Socialist Workers Party v Rockefeller. Thanks to Scott West for news about the South Carolina bill.

Texas Democratic Party Wins Oath Lawsuit

March 25th, 2009

On March 24, the 5th circuit upheld the right of the Texas Democratic Party to bar presidential candidates from its primary, unless that candidate signs an oath to “fully support” the party’s eventual presidential nominee. Kucinich v Texas Democratic Party. The Court said the oath is unenforceable. Thanks to Mark McGinnis for this news. Dennis Kucinich had refused to sign the oath in 2008 and had therefore been left off that primary ballot.

Missouri Dept. of Public Safety Apologizes to 3rd Parties and Candidates

March 24th, 2009

Following the uproar around the report by the Statistical Analysis Center of the Missouri State Highway Patrol on “The Modern Mililtia Movement,” the Missouri Dept. of Public Safety has issued an official letter of apology to Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr.

Here is the text of the letter:

STATE OF MISSOURI
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR
March 23, 2009

Rep, Ron Paul
203 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Mr. Rob Barr (sic)
900 Circle 75 Parkway, Suite 1280
Atlanta, Georgia 30339

Mr. Chuck Baldwin
6800 Mobile Highway
Pensacola, Florida 32526

Dear Rep. Paul, Mr. Barr and Mr. Baldwin:

As head of the stale agency responsible for oversight of the Missouri information Analysis Center (MIAC), I want to respond to your letter of March 20, 2009, regarding a report by the MIAC on the militia movement. Portions of that report may be easily construed by readers as offensive to supporters of certain political candidates or to those candidates themselves. I regret that those components were ultimately included in the final report issued by the MIAC.

The Missouri Department of Public Safety places the utmost value on the safety and well being of Missouri’s law enforcement officers –a value I am certain we share with you and your supporters. Officers of the law do the most dangerous job of anyone in our society and regularly put themselves in the path of great danger, bodily harm and death in order to protect innocent citizens. As such, it is our regular practice to provide as much information as we can to law enforcement agencies and their officers so they are fully cognizant of any situational hazard which they may encounter.

Unfortunately, in the course of preparing this report, some regrettable information was included in the report on militia groups in Missouri. While the intent of the report was only to identify certain traits that are sometimes shared by members of militia organizations, this report is too easily misinterpreted as suggesting that militia members may be identified by no other indicator than support for a particular candidate or political organization. That is an undesired and unwarranted outcome. Upon review and reflections, it is the judgment of the Department of Public Safety that the report should have made no reference to supporters of Ron Paul, Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin or of any other third-party political organization or candidate.

In recognition of the mistaken inclusion of this information by the MIAC in its February 20, 2009, report on the militia movement, I have ordered that the offending report be edited so as to excise all reference to Ron Paul, Bob Barr or Chuck Baldwin and to any third-party political organizations. Additionally, you nay rest assured that the report is not posted on any web site maintained by the State of Missouri.

The Missouri Department of Public Safety regrets any inconvenient or issues caused inadvertently by the unnecessary inclusion of certain components by MIAC in its militia report.

Respectfully,

John M. Britt
Director
Missouri Dept. of Public Safety

Public Funding of Congressional Candidates

March 24th, 2009

A bill will be introduced in Congress within a week to provide for public funding for candidates for Congress, according to this New York Times story of March 23. The sponsors will be Senators Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) and Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) in the Senate, and John B. Larson (D-Connecticut) in the House.

The article does not say if the bill will disregard the partisan affiliation of candidates or not. The Clean Elections laws in Maine and Arizona do not discriminate for or against candidates based on the partisan affiliation of those candidates. But past bills for public funding in Congress have had separate rules, depending on whether the candidate is a Democrat or Republican, on the one hand, or an independent or a minor party member. The bill will provide public funding for U.S. House candidates who raise at least $50,000 from at least 1,500 residents of their own district. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

Georgia Legislature Adjourns April 3

March 23rd, 2009

The Georgia legislative adjourns April 3. This year, Georgia and Indiana were the only states with truly bad ballot access laws in which no bills to improve the laws were introduced.

Georgia election law bills that probably won’t pass are the National Popular Vote Plan bills (HB 408 and SB 134), and a bill to make it illegal for out-of-staters to participate in voter registration drives (HB 225), and a bill to require all candidates for public office to swear under penalty of perjury that they live in the district that they are running in (SB 35). SB 35 would be unconstitutional as to candidates for the U.S. House.

An idea that probably will pass is requiring people who are registering to vote to submit documents proving that they are U.S. citizens. Both houses of the legislature have passed such a bill (HB 45 and SB 86), although the two bills aren’t identical. A House Committee meets on March 24 to consider the Senate version of the bill.

Summary of State Laws on Whether Ex-Felons Can Vote

March 23rd, 2009

On March 21, the Associated Press published this useful compilation of the state of the law in each state, on whether ex-felons may register to vote.

AP Story on Tuesday’s Oral Argument in U.S. Supreme Court on Campaign Finance

March 22nd, 2009

On Tuesday, March 24, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Citizens United v FEC, the case on how the federal campaign finance laws apply to movies with a political point of view. The AP ran this story about the case on March 22.

Washington Post Story on Linkage Between D.C. Vote in U.S. House and Gun Amendment

March 22nd, 2009

The March 22 Washington Post has this survey of attitudes in the District of Columbia over the probable linkage between the bill to give D.C. a voting member of the U.S. House, and the struggle over whether D.C. should continue to ban semi-automatic weapons. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s Elecctonlawblog for the link.

Wilkes-Barre Newspaper Covers Recent Development in Green Party Ballot Fees Fight

March 22nd, 2009

The March 20 issue of the Citizens Voice (daily newspaper for Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) has this story about Carl Romanelli’s appeal of the $80,000 fees imposed on him in 2006, when courts removed him from the ballot as the Green Party nominee for U.S. Senate and charged him for the privilege. Thanks to John Murphy for the link.

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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.