Proposed California Initiative Would Repeal Citizens Redistricting Commission

December 30th, 2009

A proposed California initiative, which is only in the beginning stages of petition-gathering, would repeal the 2008 initiative that sets up a Citizens Redistricting Commission. See this story. The purpose of the Citizens Redistricting Commission is to draw to boundaries for state legislative districts. If this new proposed initiative were to qualify for the November 2010 ballot, and if it passed, then the Commission would be eliminated before it had ever carried out its function. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for the link.



Arizona Elected Officials File Amicus Curiae Brief in Connecticut Public Funding Case

December 30th, 2009

The U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd circuit, will soon be holding oral arguments in Green Party of Connecticut v Garfield, the case over Connecticut’s public funding law. The Green Party had won the case in U.S. District Court and the state is appealing.

On December 29, three Arizona elected officials filed this amicus brief on the side of the Green Party. It is 24 pages. The amicus attacks the “trigger provision” in the Connecticut law. The Connecticut law says that if a candidate who doesn’t qualify for public funding still manages to raise private funds that exceed the expenditure limit for an opponent who is receiving public funds, that the publicly-financed candidate then gets substantial additional public funding. The three Arizona elected officials are Arizona State Treasurer Dean Martin, State Senator Robert Burns, and State House member Rick Murphy. They are also plaintiffs in an Arizona lawsuit against the Arizona public funding’s “trigger provision.”

Colorado Democratic State Legislator Switches to Independent

December 30th, 2009

On December 28, Colorado State House of Representatives member Kathleen Curry changed her registration from “Democratic” to “Independent.” See this story. She would like to run for re-election in 2010 as an independent. Under existing Colorado law, she switched too late. She is about to introduce a bill that would ease the prior affiliation restriction for independent candidates, and also there is a lawsuit pending against that law in federal court. Curry also mentioned the possibility that if neither of those plans works, she could be a write-in candidate in November 2010. Thanks to Gene Berkman for the link.

Curry is the first Colorado legislator to be neither a Republican or a Democrat since the legislative session of 1901-1902, when there were 13 Peoples Party members in the House, 8 Silver Republicans in the House, 7 Peoples Party State Senators, 6 Silver Republican Senators, and one Single Tax Party Senator.

Illinois Green, Running for Congress, Survives Challenge to his Primary Petition

December 30th, 2009

Bill Scheuer is a member of the Illinois Green Party who is seeking his party’s nomination for the U.S. House, 8th district. A Democratic Party official challenged his petition to be on the Green Party primary ballot, but the State Board of Elections recently deadlocked, 4-4, on whether to remove him from the Green Party primary ballot. On a tie vote, the candidate remains on the ballot. See this story.

The 8th district was not close in 2008, when only the Democratic and Republican Party had nominees on the November ballot. The 2008 vote was: Melissa Bean, Democrat, 179,444 votes; Steve Greenberg, Republican, 116,081 votes.

Rhode Island Republicans May Decide to Exclude Independent Voters from their Primary

December 30th, 2009

According to this news story, the Rhode Island Republican Party’s state executive committee will meet during the first week in January, and will consider the idea of excluding independent voters from the party’s primaries.

Rhode Island didn’t even have registration by party until about ten years ago. Thus, the state has a tradition of open primaries, and the idea, if implemented, would be a sharp break from the past. Because registration by party is relatively new in Rhode Island, only 10.95% of the state’s voters are registered Republicans, as of the November 2008 tally, which is the last available tally. If the Republican committee does close the party’s primary, this would probably cause a big increase in support for the Moderate Party, which is the only ballot-qualified party in the state other than the Democratic and Republican Parties. The Moderate Party became a qualified party in 2009 with a petition drive.

Lincoln Chafee Set to Declare as an Independent Candidate for Rhode Island Governor

December 29th, 2009

According to this story, former Republican U.S. Senator Lincoln Chafee will formally declare his independent candidacy for Governor of Rhode Island on January 4.

New York Times Carries Letter to the Editor, Advocating Independent Federal Election Commissioners

December 29th, 2009

The December 29 issue of the New York Times contains this letter, advocating that President Barack Obama appoint one or more Federal Election Commissioners who are not members of either the Democratic or Republican Parties.

As the letter explains, the law does not require three Democratic commissioners and three Republican commissioners. It only says no party may have more than three commissioners.

Lawsuit Victories in Maine Referendum Petition Cases

December 29th, 2009

On December 21, a lower state court in Maine ruled that if election officials take longer than the time allowed to check petition signatures, then the petition must be deemed valid. The decision is from Kennebec Superior Court, and is called Webster v Dunlap, AP 09-55.

And, on December 23, the same court ruled in a related lawsuit that petitions are valid, even if the notary who notarized the petition sheets put down incorrect information about the notary’s own qualifications. That case is called Johnson v Dunlap, AP 09-56.

The result is that a referendum on taxes will be on the June 2010 ballot, unless an appeal reverses the decisions. See this story. Because the petition sponsors won both cases, and they only needed to win one of them, any appeal to remove the referendum would requiring reversing both decisions. However, there probably will be appeals, to the Maine Supreme Court.

The first decision appears to substantially weaken a very bad Maine precedent set in 2008, Dobson v Dunlap, which said that even though an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate submitted her petitions on time to the county clerks, she should not be on the ballot because the town clerks didn’t check her signatures in time. That case is reported at 576 F.Supp.2d 181. That decision opens, “There is no constitutional right to procrastinate. Laurie Dobson, an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate, waited until the last minute to deliver her nomination petitions to the municipal registrars and when they failed to promptly certify all of her petitions, she failed to meet the statutory deadline to file 4,000 certified voter signatures with the Secretary of State.” In other words, according to the 2008 courts, even though the candidate followed the law and met the deadline, she should have realized that the towns would have a difficult time checking her signatures and she should have turned the signatures in earlier than the deadline.

Arizona Newspaper Story on Green Party Lawsuit

December 29th, 2009

The Northwest Valley News of Glendale, Arizona, has this story about the upcoming Green Party ballot access lawsuit, challenging the Arizona law that prevents the party from using out-of-state circulators and also the February 2010 petition deadline. The court hearing, as the article says, is January 11.

New Arizona Registration Data: Both Major Parties Decline

December 28th, 2009

The November 1, 2009 Arizona registration tally shows: Republican 36.26%, Democratic 33.31%, Libertarian .80%, Green .14%, independents and others 29.49%.

Just prior to the November 2008 election, the percentages had been: Republican 37.44%, Democratic 34.22%, Libertarian .61%, Green .13%, independents and others 27.60%.

The actual numbers for the November 1, 2009 tally are: Republican 1,127,162; Democratic 1,035,576; Libertarian 24,842; Green 4,261; independents and others 916,856.

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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!

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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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