Bills Introduced in Congress to Permit Ex-Felons to Vote

July 28th, 2009

On July 24, identical bills were introduced in both Houses of Congress to require the states to let ex-felons vote in federal elections. They are HR 3335 and S1516. They provide, “The right of an individual who is a citizen of the United States to vote in any election for Federal office shall not be denied or abridged because that individual has been convicted of a criminal offense unless such individual is serving a felony sentence in a correctional institution or facility at the time of the election.”

S1516 is sponsored by Senator Russell Feingold (D-Wisconsin) and has two co-sponsors. HR 3335 is sponsored by Congressmember John Conyers (D-Michigan) and has 28 co-sponsors.

There are three major groups of competent adult U.S. citizens who are frequently denied the free exercise of the vote: (1) felons and ex-felons; (2) residents of the District of Columbia and the territories; (3) members of minor parties and supporters of independent candidates. The harm to voting rights to any of these three groups tends to bolster the harm to the other groups as well. Deprivation of voting rights of one type excuses the deprivation of voting rights of other types.

Therefore, it is fitting that Congressman John Conyers, who introduced bills to outlaw restrictive ballot access laws affecting minor party and independent candidates repeatedly in the 1980′s, is the lead sponsor of HR 3335. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for the news about these bills.



New York City Councilmember Gets Another Ballot Access Hearing

July 27th, 2009

Bill De Blasio, New York city councilmember who is trying to get on the Democratic primary in September 2009 for New York City Public Advocate, has won a rehearing in the City Board of Elections. It is set for 1:30 pm on Tuesday, July 28. The Board removed him because his cover sheet says he submitted 131 volumes of petitions, but actually he submitted 132 volumes.

The Board of Elections is in a difficult spot. On the one hand the law is obviously foolish to keep a candidate off the ballot for such a trivial error, especially since he might win the primary if he is on the ballot. On the other hand, the law (unwise though it is) is clear, and if the Board grants him an exemption, it knows that it won’t be able to keep candidates off in the future if they make entry errors on their cover sheets. De Blasio has already filed a lawsuit against the Board of Elections, which will be pursued if the Board doesn’t put him on the ballot. No one seems to have thought about whether De Blasio would be willing to be a write-in candidate if he is ultimately kept off the September primary ballot.

UPDATE: the lawsuit will be heard Monday, August 3, unless the Board puts him back on the ballot. The case is De Blasio v Board of Elections, state supreme court, Manhatten, 09-1105-09.

New Jersey Independent Gubernatorial Candidate Chooses Lieutenant Governor Running Mate

July 27th, 2009

On July 27, New Jersey independent gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett announced that his Lieutenant Governor running mate will be Frank J. Esposito. Esposito is the interim dean for the College of Education at Kean University in Union, New Jersey.

The ticket is entitled to $700,000 in public funding, because Daggett had raised $350,000 earlier this year in private donations. The election is November 3, 2009.

California Lawsuit over American Independent Party Officers Begins to Move

July 27th, 2009

On March 16, 2009, the faction of the American Independent Party of California allied with Chuck Baldwin filed a lawsuit to win a ruling that its state officers are the legal state officers. That faction sued the faction of the party allied with Alan Keyes. The case is King v Robinson, Solano County Superior Court 033119.

That case has moved slowly because the defendants have been avoiding being served. However, courts do have procedures to handle that impediment, and those procedures are underway. The case has a status conference on October 19, 2009. Thanks to Mark Seidenberg for the news of the status conference.

Election Law Bills in State Legislatures Must Await September

July 27th, 2009

Except in California, no state legislature is likely to be considering election law bills during August.

Rhode Island’s House is not expected to come back into session until September, when the House may perhaps pass SB 203, which eases ballot access for new parties.

New York’s legislature is on recess and probably won’t return until September.

Pennsylvania’s legislature is in session, but there is no budget yet, so all attention is diverted to the budget bills. When they finally pass, the legislature is likely to recess.

Ohio’s legislature is not likely to resume normal activity until mid-September.

In Illinois, where the legislature is gone for the year, Governor Pat Quinn still hasn’t acted on HB 723. The legislature sent it to him on June 26. He must act by late August. HB 723 is the bill that makes it more difficult for ballot-qualified parties to nominate someone after the February primary is over.

California Legislature Faces Many Election Law Bills

July 26th, 2009

The California legislature, having passed a budget, has gone on a three-week recess. When legislators return on August 17, they will face many election law bills:

1. Three bills on the indirect initiative, SCA 16, ACA 13, and SCA 10. All three have passed policy committees in one house and are in one or the other of the Appropriations Committees.
2. AB 1396, a bill to deregulate the internal organization of the Democratic Party, is three-fourths of the way through the legislature but is still awaiting party-desired amendments.
3. AB 1121, which has passed the Assembly and is in the Senate Appropriations Committee, would let 10 non-charter cities or counties use Instant Runoff voting for their own elections.
4. AB 308, which has passed the Assembly and is in the Senate Appropriations Committee, would let foreign absentee voters use a type of Instant Runoff Voting in elections in which there is a possibility of a run-off if no one gets 50% in the first round.
5. SB 34, which is ready to receive a vote on the Assembly floor, would outlaw paying initiative circulators on a per-signature basis.
6. AB 909, which has passed the Assembly and is in the Senate Appropriations Committee, would provide that independent voters must be told at the primary polling place that they may choose a Democratic, Republican or American Independent primary ballot.
7. AB 6, which has passed the Assembly and and all Senate Committees, would require anyone who pays initiative circulators to register with the Secretary of State.

Paper Issues from 1993 Now Available On-Line

July 25th, 2009

The paper issues of Ballot Access News from 1993 are now available on-line. This is due to the kind efforts of Michael Ravnitzky and Eric Garris. To see them, use the link to “paper issues” on the right, under “previous issues.”

British Conservatives Choosing Parliament Nominees by Primary

July 25th, 2009

For some time, the British Conservative Party has been experimenting with choosing its candidates for the House of Commons by open meeting, at which any British voter (who lives in that district) may attend and vote. Now the Conservative Party is starting to send ballots to all the voters of a particular constituency in the postal mail, to choose its nominees. See this BBC story.

The next House of Commons election has not yet been called, but parties in Britain traditionally choose their nominees early, because no one ever knows when the next election will be called.

Prominent Democrat Removed from New York City Primary Ballot for Tiny Technicality

July 25th, 2009

On July 23, the New York City Board of Elections removed Bill De Blasio from the Democratic primary ballot, because his 125,000 signatures were accompanied by a Cover Sheet that said he was submitting 131 volumes of signatures. Actually he submitted 132 volumes.

De Blasio is a member of the City Council from Brooklyn who is running for Public Advocate. Public Advocate is one of three partisan citywide elected offices, along with Mayor and Comptroller. In the past, the name of the office was “President of the City Council”, and the Public Advocate does preside at city council meetings, and functions as New York City’s “Lieutenant Governor”, although the election for Public Advocate is not teamed with the election for Mayor.

New York state is the only state that requires candidates to submit a “cover sheet” with their petitions. The cover sheet must describe the petition. The ostensible purpose is to make life easier for individuals who want to challenge petitions.

De Blasio filed a lawsuit in state court on July 24, which will be heard on Monday, July 27. Thanks to Christina Tobin for this news. Here is a story about De Blasio’s petition, and here is a New York Times editorial.

The incumbent Public Advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, is not running for re-election. Other Democrats running for the post are Eric Gioia, Mark Green, and Norman Siegel.

Federal Government Still Hasn’t Published 2008 Election Returns

July 25th, 2009

The Federal Election Commission still hasn’t published “Federal Elections 2008″, the book of election returns, for President and Congress, from last year’s election. The 2004 edition had been published in May 2005. The 2006 edition had been published in June 2007.

Also, the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives still hasn’t published “Statistics of the Presidential & Congressional Election of November 4, 2008″. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this.

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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.