Maine Petition is Under Attack Because Notaries Public Who Certified Petition Sheets Got Married and Didn’t Change Their Names in State Records

November 30th, 2009

In the United States, it seems there is almost an infinity of reasons why petitions can be challenged. States that require petition sheets to be notarized open the doors for additional types of challenges. Determined challengers may realize that the petition itself has enough signatures of registered voters, so then the challengers try to find something wrong with the paperwork involving notarization.

A group in Maine recently submitted 56,107 valid signatures, to force a referendum on a tax overhaul that the legislature passed earlier this year. Opponents of the referendum petition say that it should not be on the ballot, because at least two of the notaries public who notarized certain sheets got married, and didn’t ever notify the state office that keeps tabs on notaries that their surnames had changed. Because the Secretary of State certified the petition anyway, one challenger sued the Secretary of State to remove the referendum. The lawsuit is Johnson v Dunlap, Kennebec Superior Court, AP 09-56. The case will probably be decided by January 1, 2010.



Boerne, Texas Considers Abandoning Cumulative Voting

November 30th, 2009

Boerne, Texas, has been using Cumulative Voting for its city council elections since 1997. The city began using Cumulative Voting in response to a lawsuit that had been filed by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). Cumulative Voting is a system in which each voters gets, for example, three votes. That voter is free to give all three votes to one particular candidate, or spread the votes around to several candidates. The goal was to make it possible for Hispanics to win at least one seat. However, even with Cumulative Voting, no Hispanic has been on the Council since 2003.

LULAC says it would support going to single-member districts if a majority-Hispanic district could be drawn. See this story. Boerne is in central Texas and is 20% Hispanic.

December is the Month in Which Activists Should Find Sponsors for Legislative Bills

November 30th, 2009

December is the prime month during which activists should look for state legislators to introduce bills in next year’s legislative sessions. More progress improving ballot access laws comes from persuading state legislators to ease these laws, than via lawsuits. But many states have very early deadlines for legislators to introduce bills. For example, in Indiana, all bills considered in 2010 must have been introduced by the first week in January 2010.

Vermont Debates an Earlier Primary

November 30th, 2009

Although the Vermont legislature is not in session, Vermont state government officials are talking about whether to move the primary (for all office except president) from September, to August 24. See this story. Governor Jim Douglas favors asking the federal government for a waiver of the new federal law that is pushing the talk about a primary date change. The new federal law, which takes effect for the 2010 congressional primaries, tells states they must mail overseas absentee ballots no later than 45 days before the November election.

Georgia Ballot Case Has Hearing in Eleventh Circuit

November 29th, 2009

The 11th circuit says it will hear oral arguments in Coffield v Handel during the period March 1-5. The court will set the exact date in a few weeks. This is the case in which Faye Coffield tried to get on the ballot as an independent candidate for U.S. House in 2008. Although no one has completed the Georgia petition requirement for that office since 1964, it has always been tough to get the issue into court, because generally the petition is so difficult, no one even tries.

“City Hall” In-Depth Report on Why Working Families Party is So Effective in New York

November 29th, 2009

City Hall’s November 29 issue has this very lengthy and detailed report on how the Working Families Party raises money in New York state, and how it is part of a network of organizations that enhance the effectiveness of each part of that network. Thanks to Rick Hasen of ElectionLawBlog for the link.

Nader Again Non-Committal on Possible U.S. Senate Run

November 29th, 2009

The newspaper that covers Litchfield County, Connecticut, has this November 29 story about Ralph Nader’s appearance in Norfolk, Connecticut, for his book tour. Apparently as Nader traverses that state, he is always asked if he will run for the U.S. Senate in 2010. He continues being noncommital.

Outcoming Annapolis City Councilmember May Switch to Libertarian Party

November 29th, 2009

According to this story, outgoing Annapolis, Maryland city councilmember Julie Stankivic says she may change her voter registration from “Republican” to “Libertarian.” She was elected in a partisan election in 2005 as an independent, but later had become a Republican. She didn’t run for re-election this year and leaves the council on December 7.

Connecticut Governor Wants Non-Discriminatory Public Funding

November 29th, 2009

Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell has asked the legislature to amend the state’s public funding law so that it does not discriminate for or against any candidate on the basis of the candidate’s partisan affiliation. See this story. Thanks to Joshua Van Vranken for the link.

On August 27, 2009, a U.S. District Court had invalidated the law because it massively favors Democrats and Republicans over independent candidates, in the matter of qualifying for public funding. The law requires all candidates, whatever their partisan affiliation, to qualify by receiving $5 contributions from an equal number of contributors. But, independent candidates would also need a petition of 20% of the last vote cast to receive equal public funding with Democrats and Republicans. For a statewide office in 2010, an independent would need 224,694 valid signatures. No candidate petition for ballot access in any state, in U.S. history, has ever been overcome if it required more than 134,781 signatures. The printed December 1, 2009 Ballot Access News has a chart that shows the highest candidate petition ever overcome in each of the 50 states. It is absurd for Connecticut, a relatively small state, to expect any candidate to submit 224,694 valid signatures for any purpose.

Illinois Lawsuit Over Vote-Counting Machines Will Test the Meaning of “Secret Ballot”

November 29th, 2009

On November 20, the County Clerk of Champaign County, Illinois, filed a lawsuit in state court over an Illinois law that requires the county to use vote-counting machines that make an audible beep if a voter attempts to cast a vote that is blank for some offices. The case is Mark Shelden v Illinois State Board of Elections, in Champaign County Circuit Court.

The Illinois constitution requires that all voting be conducted in a way that “insures the secrecy of voting.” The Clerk says that the Constitution is being violated when a voter is forced to vote on a machine that tells everyone in the room if he or she chooses to leave certain offices blank. The Clerk says that there might be poll watchers in the room at the time, and the voter may be intimidated if that voter owes certain favors to people in one of the political parties, or someone in government, and it becomes known that the voter chose to leave some offices blank. See this story. Thanks to Richard Smolka of Election Administration Reports for this story.

In 1964, in Connecticut, a similar controversy arose over secrecy in voting and the use of particular voting machines. Viviam Kellems was upset about Connecticut mechanical voting machines. When a voter used the machine’s straight-ticket device, the machine made a bell-like sound. Kellems insisted that a voter should be able to decide whether to use the straight-ticket device or not without having people outside know. Instead of resorting to the courts, she carried out a sit-in in the voting booth. Elections officials had known what she was going to do, and they had an extra polling place, and let her carry on her sit-in all day. She eventually won the fight, when election officials finally eliminated the Connecticut straight-ticket device.

If the U.S. Supreme Court accepts Doe v Reed, the case from Washington state over secrecy of names and addresses on petitions, there will be a new interest in exactly why all states use a secret ballot, and what “secret ballot” really means.

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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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  • 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]

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