Colorado National Popular Vote Bill Survives Attempt to Kill it in Senate

April 29th, 2009

On April 29, Colorado Republican Senators tried a parliamentary maneuver to kill HB 1299, the National Popular Vote Plan bill. However, the bill survived, and will probably come up for a rollcall in the Senate in the next two weeks. It has already passed the House. See this story for the details.



Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Voting Rights Act Case

April 29th, 2009

On April 29, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in NAMUDNO v Holder, 08-322. The issue is the constitutionality of section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act, which requires local and state governments in part of the nation to submit election law changes to the U.S. Justice Department, before those changes can go into effect. Here is the AP story about the oral argument. UPDATE: here is the transcript, on the U.S. Supreme Court’s webpage. Thanks to Rick Hasen for that.

Two Former New Jersey Governors Have Praise for This Year’s Independent Candidate for Governor

April 29th, 2009

The New Jersey Star-Ledger’s Guest Blog (April 27) features a brief discussion of independent gubernatorial candidate Christopher Daggett. The two guest bloggers are two former New Jersey Governors, Republican Tom Kean and Democrat Brendan Byrne. Byrne says, “Chris Daggett is an exceptionally well-qualified candidate” and “If he were Governor of New Jersey, we would be well off.” Kean says, “He did well when he served in government, and would do well if he served again.”

2nd Circuit Upholds Repeal of New York City’s Term Limits

April 28th, 2009

On April 28, the 2nd circuit released this 53-page decision, agreeing with the U.S. District Court that nothing in the U.S. Constitution prevented the New York city council from repealing the city term limits law. Here is the AP story about the decision. Thanks to Eric Garris for this link. The case is Molinari v Bloomberg, 09-331.

Senator Specter to Switch Parties

April 28th, 2009

According to this news story, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter is about to change his registration from “Republican” to “Democrat.” Thanks to Jack Ross for this news.

If Senator Specter represented California, he could not have switched parties this month and run for re-election in 2010. California law on prior party affiliation is so restrictive, if someone switches parties in April of an odd year, he or she can not run in the following year’s primary, in any party. The 2010 June primary filing deadline is in March 2010, and candidates who switch parties less than a full year before the primary filing deadline are barred from all primary ballots. One would think the California law runs afoul of the U.S. Supreme Court decision U.S. Term Limits v Thornton, which said that states cannot keep people off the ballot for Congress if they meet the constitutional qualifications to hold the office.

Texas Committee Hears Testimony on Ballot Access

April 28th, 2009

On April 27, the Texas House Elections Committee listened to 40 minutes of testimony in favor of HB 820, the bill to improve ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates.

The hearing started 4 hours later than scheduled, so most of the potential witnesses had to go home before the hearing started. But the committee listened to testimony from representatives of the Constitution Party, the Reform Party, and Public Citizen. Most of the legislators on the committee sat through the testimony, even though it ended after 10 p.m. HB 820 would drastically lower the number of signatures needed for ballot access.

Press Conference to Oppose Illinois Anti-Slating Bill

April 28th, 2009

Free & Equal has organized a press conference at the Illinois State Capitol Press Room, for 3 p.m, Tuesday, April 28. The purpose of the press conference is to criticize HB 723, which makes it virtually impossible for qualified parties to nominate candidates after the primary has been held.

The Senate Local Government Committee hears the bill today at 1 p.m.

Washington Governor to Sign National Popular Vote Bill on April 28

April 27th, 2009

According to this news story, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire will sign SB5599 on April 28 (Tuesday). That is the National Popular Vote bill. Washington will make the 5th state to pass the bill. However, the compact won’t go into effect until states comprising a majority of the electoral college have passed it. UPDATE: the Governor sign the bill on the afternoon of April 28.

New Mexico Secretary of State Says Greens are Not a Qualified Party

April 27th, 2009

On April 27, the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office said that it recognizes the Independent Party and the Constitution Party as being ballot-qualified. It said the Green Party and the Libertarian Party are not ballot-qualified.

The Green Party does appear to meet the statutory qualifications to be a major party. The law says, “Major party means any qualified political party, ANY of whose candidates received as many as 5% of the total number of votes for the office of governor, or president of the United States, as the case may be and whose membership totals not less than one-third of 1% of the statewide registered voter file on the day of the governor’s primary election proclamation.”

The Green Party candidate for Public Regulation Commission, Rick Lass, in 2008, polled 77,006 votes in a partisan race. The number of votes cast for president in New Mexico last year was 830,158. 5% of 830,158 is only 41,508, so Lass polled more than 5%. Also, the Green Party’s registration is greater than one-third of 1% of the state total.

The catch is that in order to be a qualified major party after any election, a party must be a qualified party, and qualified parties must have polled at least one-half of 1% at either of the last two elections for the office at the top of the ticket. The Green Party was a qualified party on the day of the election, so it would be possible to interpret the law either for or against the Green Party. But the Secretary of State has accepted the more restrictive interpretation.

The Constitution Party is a ballot-qualified party, even though it didn’t poll as much as one-half of 1% for president last year, because law and precedent say that a party gets two elections after submitting the party petition. The Constitution Party did its last party petition in 2008.

The Libertarian Party is not a ballot-qualified party because it did its last party petition in 2006, and because it did not poll as much as one-half of 1%. The Independent Party is a ballot-qualified party because it polled more than one-half of 1% for its presidential candidate last year. The candidate was Ralph Nader.

Hawaii Holds its First All-Mail Election

April 27th, 2009

On Thursday, April 23, Hawaii finished holding its first all-mail ballot election. See this story. The election was to fill a vacant seat in the Honolulu city council.

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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.