Ohio Secretary of State Outlines Election Administration Proposals, but says Nothing About Ballot Access

February 28th, 2011

On February 28, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted held a press conference and outlined his ideas for improving election administration in Ohio. However, he said nothing about ballot access for parties, even though the state’s law on that subject was held unconstitutional over four years ago and the legislature has not passed a new law. See the press release. Thanks to Kevin Knedler for the link.



Brief Filed in Intra-Party American Independent Party Dispute

February 28th, 2011

On February 28, the faction of the American Independent Party that is associated with the Constitution Party filed this ten-page brief. The case is called King v Robinson, and is pending in Superior Court in Solano County, California. There will be a hearing in Fairfield, California, on March 11, Friday, at 9 a.m.

The dispute has been pending since 2008, when the California Secretary of State determined that the AIP faction that supported Alan Keyes for President was the legitimate faction.

Opening Brief Filed in California Case over One-Year Duration of Residency for State Legislative Candidates

February 28th, 2011

On February 24, Heidi Fuller filed her opening brief in Fuller v Bowen in the State Court of Appeals, case number C065237. This is the case that challenges the California Secretary of State’s refusal to enforce the State Constitutional requirement that candidates for the legislature must have lived in their district for one year before filing to run.

How Great Britain Regulates Party Labels on the Ballot

February 28th, 2011

The British Electoral Commission has published this 15-page book, “Introduction to Registering a Political Party.” Candidates for the House of Commons handle their own ballot access, by submitting 10 signatures and a filing fee (called a “deposit”) of 500 pounds. Therefore, there is no connection between ballot access and whether any particular party is registered. Parties do not register for the purpose of being on the ballot. Instead, parties must register to make it possible for candidates to use the party label of that party.

Registering a political party in Great Britain is simple. The parties must submit a copy of their internal rules for nominating candidates, and must submit quarterly campaign finance reports. Parties can choose any label that is no longer than six words, is not obscene or in poor taste, and which does not contain certain words or phrases, such as “none of the above” or a reference to the royal family. Parties also submit a logo, which appears on the ballot next to the names of that party’s nominees. When parties register, their name is protected, and cannot be used by other groups. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.

U.S. Supreme Court Again Postpones Decision on Whether to Hear Illinois Special U.S. Senate Election

February 28th, 2011

On February 28, the U.S. Supreme Court released an orders list, showing which cases it decided to hear, or not to hear, at its February 24 conference. For the second week in a row, the Court has not yet decided whether to hear Burris v Judge, and/or Quinn v Judge, numbers 10-367 and 10-821. These are the cases over the special U.S. Senate election in Illinois last year. The case has been re-listed for the March 4 conference.

The 7th circuit had ordered Illinois to hold a special election for the Class III U.S. Senate seat, on November 2, 2010. This is the U.S. Senate seat that President Obama had been elected to in 2004. When he resigned from the Senate to become President, the Governor of Illinois had appointed Roland Burris to fill the seat. Some Illinois voters had sued to force the state to hold a special election. The 7th circuit had ruled in favor of a special election, to be held in November 2010, with the winner to take office immediately. But the 7th circuit also refused to let Senator Burris run for the seat he was holding. Instead it ordered that only the candidates who were already on the November 2010 election for the full 6-year term could run in the special election. The Governor of Illinois then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the 7th circuit had been wrong to order a special election. Also Senator Burris had appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that if the special election was to be held, the 7th circuit had been wrong to dictate which candidates could run.

Ireland Waits Patiently While Votes Counted for Lower House of Parliament

February 27th, 2011

On February 25, Ireland held an election for lower house of the national Parliament. These elections use proportional representation, and single transferable vote. See this story for a basic description. Because it takes some time to count ranked-choice ballots, a few of the results are still to be determined, as of February 27. However, no one writing in the Irish press seems surprised or exasperated by this. See this February 27 story about the progress of the count.

Massachusetts Bill for a Combined Presidential Primary/Primary for Other Office, in June

February 27th, 2011

Two Massachusetts representatives, James Dwyer (D-Woburn) and Bradley Jones (R-North Reading) have introduced HB 1972, to move the presidential primary from February to June. The bill also moves the primary for other office from September to June. The state would save money by holding only one primary instead of two.

The bill, if enacted, would not affect the deadline for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, to get on the ballot. That deadline would remain in July.

The idea of a Massachusetts presidential primary that late in the year is completely new to that state. Massachusetts has held a presidential primary in every presidential election year starting in 1912, and it has always been in February, March, or April. Thanks to Josh Putnam of Frontloading HQ for this news.

Oklahoma Bills, Moving Primary, Get Publicity in Oklahoma’s Largest Newspaper

February 27th, 2011

The Oklahoman has this story about bills in the Oklahoma legislature to move the primary from July to June. The story mentions that the filing deadline for individuals to file for the primary would move to April. However, the story does not mention that the bills also move the deadline for a party to qualify for the ballot from May 1 to March 1. The newspaper story title has a typo; obviously the newspaper meant to say “filing period”, not “failing period.”

Oklahoma legislators, and other Oklahomans who follow current affairs, seem unaware that early petition deadlines for new parties to qualify for the ballot are unconstitutional, especially when the state requires a very large number of signatures. In most states, newly-qualifying parties nominate by convention, not by primary, so states with early primaries are still able to have reasonable deadlines for parties to get on the ballot. Oklahoma is one of the states that insists that even newly-qualifying parties must nominate by primary.

Independent Voting Asks to Intervene in South Carolina Republican Party Lawsuit to Close Primaries

February 26th, 2011

On February 4, IndependentVoting.org filed a request with a U.S. District Court in South Carolina, asking that it be allowed to intervene in the lawsuit called Greenville County Republican Party Executive Committee, and South Carolina Republican Party, et al., v State of South Carolina, 6:10-cv-01407. Here is IndependentVoting’s memorandum. Here is IndependentVoting’s Motion, which includes affidavits by Jacqueline Salit, president of IndependentVoting, and Wayne Griffin, chair of the ballot-qualified Independence Party of South Carolina.

The Motion also includes unsigned statements by a South Carolina Democratic legislator, Joe Neal; by Allen Olson, chair of the Columbia Tea Party; by Brett Bursey, who was the Labor Party’s nominee for state house last year; and by Ted Adams, chair of the Constitution Party of South Carolina.

The lawsuit was filed last year by the Greenville County Republican Party and the South Carolina Republican Party. It argues that since parties in South Carolina must pay for their own primaries for municipal office (in cities that have partisan elections), the parties ought to be able to limit voting in those primaries to voters who are not “rivals” of the party. The Republicans also attack a state law that says that if a party convention chooses to nominate by convention, the motion must pass with a 3/4ths vote. South Carolina is one of the few states that lets all parties decide for themselves whether to nominate by primary or by convention, but the 3/4ths law makes it difficult for the major parties to ever opt out of a primary. The papers filed by IndependentVoting do not discuss the point that parties pay for their own municipal primaries. Also, IndependentVoting does not discuss the state law requiring a 3/4ths vote for a party to choose to nominate by convention. Thanks to Harry Kresky for copies of IndependentVoting’s legal papers. All of the state legislators mentioned as supporting IndependentVoting’s intervention are Democrats. Here is a Greenville News editorial opposing the lawsuit, although the editorial does not mention IndependentVoting’s request to intervene.

Here is the Republican Party’s complaint, filed last year.

New Egyptian Ballot Access Law Proposed

February 26th, 2011

The Egyptian Committee that has been suggesting new constitutional amendments has proposed changes in ballot access for presidential candidates. The suggestion is that a presidential candidate qualify for ballot access if he or she submits 30,000 signatures, with a certain number obtained from each of 15 provinces. Egypt has 29 provinces. Alternatively, a candidate can qualify if he or she is endorsed by at least 30 members of either house of the national legislature. A third method is that if a party has at least one member of the national parliament, it can place a presidential nominee on the ballot with no petition. See this story.

Egypt has an estimated population of 77,119,000.

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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.