U.S. Supreme Court Receives at Least 33 Amici Curiae Briefs in Citizens United Case

July 31st, 2009

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Citizens United v Federal Election Commission on September 9. The case concerns the McCain-Feingold campaign spending law. Amici curiae briefs are due by the end of the day, Friday, July 31. Already there seem to be at least 20 amici briefs in opposition to the law, 9 in favor, and 4 neutral. Some of the amici briefs are on behalf of many organizations. Some of these briefs are as long as 40 pages. UPDATE: some of these amici briefs had already been filed before the U.S. Supreme Court asked for re-argument.

The Federal Election Commission’s web page has this summary of the case, and links to the various briefs. See here. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for the link. The U.S. Supreme Court is perhaps fortunate that this is the only case it will be hearing in the next two months.



Ohio Supreme Court Rules Initiative Has Enough Valid Signatures

July 31st, 2009

On July 31, the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously ruled that one particular initiative should appear on the 2010 ballot. The 8-page decision is here. The case is State ex rel Scioto Downs v Brunner, 2009-3761.

The Secretary of State had certified an initiative, providing for casinos in four Ohio cities, for the ballot. Opponents had then sued to overturn her decision, and had claimed that one of the circulators was an ex-felon and that other circulators had listed their address as hotels or various nonresidential addresses. The decision says that the ex-felon had only submitted 19 signatures, and also says that other charges are insufficient to disturb the determination that at least 402,275 signatures were submitted.

Navajo Nation Will Use Initiative for First Time

July 31st, 2009

On July 30, the Supreme Court of the Navajo Nation ruled that two initiatives had successfully qualified for the Navajo ballot. The Court ordered the election to be held before the end of 2009. See this article. The Navajo Constitution provides for the initiative, if a petition signed by 15% of the qualified Navajo voters. The tribal administration had said the two initiatives did not have enough valid signatures, but the Court disagreed. The two initiatives concern (1) reducing the Tribal Council from 88 members to 24; (2) providing for a line-item veto.

Delaware Holds 4-Candidate Debate

July 31st, 2009

Delaware chooses a new State Senator in the 19th district on Monday, August 3, to fill a vacancy. Four candidates are running, a Republican, a Democrat, a Libertarian, and an independent. All four participated in a debate on July 30. See this story. The League of Women Voters sponsored the debate. It was held in the County Council Chambers, and drew a standing-room-only crowd. Also it was broadcast live on the Sussex County web site, and was twittered.

Rhode Island Moderate Party Likely Finishes Petition

July 31st, 2009

The Moderate Party of Rhode Island will have collected 30,000 signatures on its petition to become a qualified party by Monday, August 3. The law requires 23,589 signatures, so the party believes that in four days, it will have enough valid signatures.

If the party has qualified, this is the first time any political party, or any statewide independent candidate, has completed a petition of 5% of the last vote cast since 2000, when the Libertarian Party, and the Reform Party, each completed Oklahoma’s 5% petition. Also, this is the first time a party has qualified itself using a 5% statewide petition in a midterm year since the Libertarian Party completed such a petition in Nevada in 1978 (Nevada eliminated its 5% petition requirement in 1987).

Congress Hears Testimony on Public Financing

July 30th, 2009

The U.S. House Committee on Administration held a hearing on HR 1826 on July 30. The bill would provide for public funding for candidates for Congress. This AP story mentions what some of the witnesses said, but has no information on how members of the Committee reacted. Nor does the story mention any of the testimony against the bill.

The Center for Competitive Politics has a link to the webcam of the hearing here.

HR 1826 treats all candidates alike, regardless of their party affiliation or independent status.

Texas to Hold Special Election for U.S. Senate in May 2010

July 30th, 2009

On July 29, Texas U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison said she will resign from the Senate in October or November 2009, in order to prepare to run for Governor in 2010. She had last been elected to the Senate in 2006.

Therefore, Texas will hold a special election for U.S. Senate on May 8, 2010. No petition is needed for special elections in Texas, so anyone who pays a filing fee can be on the May 2010 ballot, with a party label. If no one gets 50%, a run-off will be held on June 2.

New York Campaign Rally for Ballot Access Reform

July 30th, 2009

According to this story, over 100 people rallied in New York city to hear City Councilmember Bill De Blasio call for ballot access reform.

Some of the quotations from the rally suggest that the speakers don’t know the history of ballot access laws. One speaker tied Boss Tweed to restrictive ballot access laws. But when Boss Tweed was in power in New York city, there were no government-printed ballots. Back in the 1870′s and 1880′s, voters were free to make their own ballots, so no one could be kept from running. The first government-printed ballots in New York were created in 1890, but the technicalities that make petitioning so hazardous in that state were not added until the early 20th century.

South Dakota Court Will Decide if Referendum Has Enough Valid Signatures

July 30th, 2009

A South Dakota state court will soon decide if a referendum has enough valid signatures. Proponents of the referendum submitted 25,400 signatures to meet a legal requirement of 16,776. However, approximately 2,000 signatures were notarized by notaries who wrote down an incorrect date for when their seal expires. If those signatures are considered invalid, the referendum will fail to qualify.

The purpose of the referendum is to ask for a popular vote on a ban on smoking in bars and casinos. The case is Trucano v Nelson, 32-civ 09-306, pending in the 6th district Circuit Court.

Tulsa Voters Likely to Decide Whether to Switch to Non-Partisan City Elections

July 30th, 2009

Probably the voters of Tulsa, Oklahoma, will vote on November 10, 2009, whether to switch the city’s partisan elections to non-partisan elections. See this story. The initiative (to provide for non-partisan elections) needs 3,427 signatures. Over 6,000 signatures were submitted. As far as is known, Tulsa is the only city in Oklahoma that holds partisan elections for its own officers.

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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!

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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.