Socialist Party of France Likely to Use Primary to Choose Presidential Candidate

August 27th, 2009

On August 27, leaders of the Socialist Party of France agreed that the party should use a presidential primary in the future to choose its presidential nominee. The party has not decided yet which voters will be allowed to participate in that proposed primary. See this story.



Humane Party Starts to Organize

August 27th, 2009

A group of individuals who care about treatment of animals has decided to build a new political party, to be called the Humane Party. Here is the party’s webpage. The founders appear to be Californians.

Arkansas Green Party Files Lawsuit to Be Restored to the Ballot

August 27th, 2009

On August 27, the Arkansas Green Party filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the state’s definition of “political party”, which is a group that polled 3% for the office at the top of the ticket in the last election (President in presidential election years, Governor in midterm years). UPDATE: here is a TV station’s news story about the lawsuit. In 2008, the Green Party polled over 20% for U.S. Senate in Arkansas, averaged over 19% for its candidates for U.S. House, elected a state legislator, but it was still removed from the ballot because it hadn’t polled 3% for President.

The case is Green Party of Arkansas v Daniels, 4:09-cv-695. It was assigned to Judge J. Leon Holmes, a Bush, Jr. appointee. Here is the complaint. This is an ACLU case.

Washington State Senator May Run Write-in Campaign for Seattle Mayor

August 27th, 2009

Washington State Senator Ed Murray is considering whether to enter the race for Seattle Mayor as a write-in candidate. The election is November 3. See this story.

Last week, the non-partisan primary resulted in the defeat of the incumbent Mayor, Greg Nickels. The names printed on the run-off ballot will be Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn. The third-place finish by the Mayor was somewhat surprising, and apparently there is support for someone new to enter the race.

Massachusetts Legislature May Expedite Bill on Senate Vacancies

August 27th, 2009

Ever since 2004, Massachusetts law has provided that Governors may not fill a vacancy in a U.S. Senate seat. Instead, the seat must remain empty until a special election is held. That election must be approximately five months after the vacancy had been created.

In January 2009, Massachusetts State House member Robert Koczera introduced HB 656, to permit the Governor to fill the vacancy immediately, although the state would still hold a special election approximately five months later. The bill had been set for a legislative hearing in October 2009, but the legislature may expedite that hearing, given the recent vacancy created by the death of Senator Ted Kennedy.

New Deposition Date Set in Florida Green Mystery Candidates Lawsuit

August 27th, 2009

Last year, five candidates filed in the Florida Green Party primary to run for the legislature. Green Party leaders had never heard of any of them, and suspected that Republican Party activists had recruited them to get their names on the ballot, and supposedly injure the chances of Democratic Party nominees. The state chair of the Green Party filed a lawsuit last year to determine who had paid the filing fees for these candidates, since the candidates had not disclosed this on campaign finance reports, and Florida filing fees are high.

A new deposition date, September 23, has been set in the case.

Pennsylvania Responds to Minor Parties’ New Ballot Access Lawsuit

August 26th, 2009

On August 24, the Pennsylvania Attorney General responded to the lawsuit Constitution Party of Pennsylvania v Cortes, which was filed in federal court in Philadelphia on April 21, 2009. Here is the state’s brief.

The state completely ignores the part of the lawsuit that challenges the 15% registration membership for a party to be on the general election ballot automatically. The state also completely ignores the point raised by the Green Party, which is that although the state tallied the write-ins for Chuck Baldwin (Constitution Party nominee for president in 2008), it did not do so for Cynthia McKinney (Green Party nominee for president in 2008). This, despite the fact that McKinney filed a list of presidential elector candidates and asked that her write-ins be tallied.

As to the point that certain counties failed to tally any write-ins at all, the state simply says the plaintiffs should sue those counties, not the state.

As to the most important point in the lawsuit, that the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from charging candidates and/or voters for the costs of election administration, the state does not mention any of the precedents on which the plaintiffs rely, such as cases striking down fees for checking signatures, or cases striking down mandatory filing fees for candidates, or the U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down poll taxes for voters.

Libertarian, Green Parties Ask Federal Court to Put Them on New Mexico Ballot

August 26th, 2009

On August 25, the Libertarian and Green Parties of New Mexico asked a U.S. District Court to place them on the 2010 ballot. Here is the brief. The lawsuit had been filed by the two parties on May 7, and is Woodruff v Herrera, cv-09-449.

The basis for the request is that the Libertarian Party asked for the petition blanks in January 2009, but was told that the Secretary of State’s practice is not to make the forms available until October of odd years, even though there is no law on the subject of when such petitions may be circulated. The brief cites the recent U.S. District Court decision from Rhode Island, in which Rhode Island’s law mandating that petitions to create a new party may not be circulated until January 1 of an election year was held unconstitutional.

Wyoming Constitution Party Gets Big Support from One Particular County

August 26th, 2009

The Wyoming Constitution Party has never before been on the ballot, although in the past, the party has qualified its presidential candidate in Wyoming as an independent. The party is currently petitioning to qualify itself for 2010, using volunteer petitioners.

In Big Horn County, so far, 610 signatures have been gathered, which is 11.5% of the number of votes cast for president in that county last year. Big Horn County is one of Wyoming’s smaller counties, and is on the Montana border. Last year its vote for president was: McCain 4,045; Obama 1,108; Nader 41; Baldwin 39; Barr 37. This year, many conservative Republicans in the county are disenchanted with the Republican Party.

Court Says Texas Democratic Party Must Seek Justice Department Approval for Presidential Delegate Change

August 26th, 2009

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act prohibits governments in certain states from changing any election laws or rules without getting U.S. Justice Department permission. In 1994, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that section 5 of the Voting Rights Act also covers political parties in those states.

On August 25, a 3-judge U.S. District Court in San Antonio ruled that, therefore, the Texas Democratic Party should have requested Justice Department permission in 2007, when it changes its rules on choosing delegates to national conventions. Here is the 25-page decision, Lulac of Texas v Texas Democratic Party, 5:08-cv-389. The opinion is by U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Edward C. Prado, a Bush Jr. appointee. It was signed by two U.S. District Court judges, Judge Fred Biery (a Clinton appointee) and Judge Xavier Rodriguez (a Bush Jr. appointee). Judge Biery wrote a short concurrence which seems to be expressing the hope that the U.S. Supreme Court will become involved in this case. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for the link.

The decision emphasizes that political parties do enjoy rights to autonomy, but the decision stresses that, so far, the Texas Democratic Party has not produced any evidence to show that its freedom of association will be injured if it must seek permission from the Justice Department. The party is free, under the Voting Rights Act, to ask for a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to approve its changes, rather than seeking approval from the Justice Department.

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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.