Michael Chamness Appeals to 9th Circuit; Court asks for Response from State by Noon on April 1

March 31st, 2011

At 4:40 p.m. on March 31, Michael Chamness appealed to the 9th circuit, in his lawsuit to force elections officials to allow him to be listed on the ballot as either “independent” or “My party preference is the Coffee Party.” The 9th circuit quickly asked the Secretary of State’s attorneys to file a response by noon, April 1. The case is Chamness v Bowen. If Chamness gets no relief, his ballot label will be “No party preference”. The U.S. District Court Judge in this case had denied relief to Chamness on March 30.

The election is set for May 17, to fill the vacant U.S. House seat, 36th district, in Los Angeles County. The seat is empty because Congresswoman Jane Harman resigned. The overseas absentee ballots are about to be printed, so this case is moving very fast.



Canadian Greens File Lawsuit for Debate Admission

March 31st, 2011

See this story, which says that the Green Party of Canada has sued to gain admittance into next month’s debates. The election itself is May 2.

Asheville, North Carolina City Councilmember will Try to Qualify as an Independent for U.S. House in 2012

March 31st, 2011

Cecil Bothwell says he will attempt to get on the ballot in North Carolina’s 11th district in 2012, as an independent candidate. No independent candidate has ever appeared on a government-printed ballot in North Carolina for either house of Congress. The current law requires a petition signed by 4% of the registered voters. However, bills are pending in each house of the legislature to ease the requirements.

Bothwell is a member of the Asheville city council. He is upset with the incumbent Democrat in this district. See this story. Thanks to ThirdPartyDaily for the link.

Vermont Secretary of State Appeals Favorable Ballot Access Ruling to State Supreme Court

March 31st, 2011

On March 30, the Vermont Secretary of State filed a notice of appeal to the State Supreme Court, to try to overturn the February 22, 2011 ruling of a lower state court in Trudell v State. The lower court had ruled in that case that the June petition deadline is probably unconstitutional; but had agreed to hold a trial, to give the state a chance to submit evidence as to why an early deadline is necessary.

Before 2010, the Vermont petition deadline was in September. The legislature moved it to June when it moved the primary from September to August. Because Vermont has 120 years of experience with an independent candidate deadline in October or September, it is difficult for the state to produce any evidence that a June deadline is necessary. If the state says the deadline in June is needed to prevent sore losers, that argument is easy to rebut. If a state wants to ban sore losers, it may do so directly, without making the deadline early for all independents, sore losers and non-sore losers alike.

The state had asked the lower court for reconsideration, but the lower court denied that on March 30.

West Virginia Legislature Adjourns, Having Passed Few Election Law Bills

March 31st, 2011

The West Virginia legislature adjourned on March 18, having passed few election law bills. Bills that failed to pass included two bills to re-define “political party”. Currently, a qualified party is one that polled 1% for Governor at the last regular election. The bills would have added alternatives. Another bill that failed to pass would have eliminated the straight-ticket device. Another would have passed the National Popular Vote Plan.

The Governor vetoed HB 2438, which would have clarified the definition of “independent voter” to make it clear that a registered member of an unqualified party is considered to be an independent. The only time this makes a difference is when a party entitled to its own primary has a rule allowing independent voters to vote in its primary. The Governor vetoed the bill because of other, unrelated provisions in the bill.

Restrictive bills that failed to pass included several bills to force declared write-in candidates to pay a filing fee (SB 29 and HB 2417); a bill to change the order of parties on the ballot so that the party with the most voter registrations is always listed first on the ballot (HB 2444); and a bill to provide that the names and addresses of people who sign petitions should be made public (HB 2533).

The Governor signed HB 3100 on March 30. It repeals the law that says liquor can not be sold on election day.

Action on Tennessee Ballot Access Bill Postponed

March 31st, 2011

The Tennessee bills to make slight improvements in ballot access for new and minor parties have been delayed. This is fortunate, because it will give more time for Tennessee activists to make their case that the bills are not nearly good enough.

SB 935 was to have been voted on in the Senate floor on March 31, but that vote has been postponed to April 7. HB 794, which is identical, will be heard in the full State and Local Government Committee on Tuesday, April 5. The full committee will allow testimony, even though the subcommittee on March 30 did not allow testimony. However, people who wish to testify must give advance notice.

Both bills move the petition deadline from March to early April, but early April is still too early, according to the U.S. District Court decision from last year that struck down the old law. Furthermore, the bills do not reduce the number of signatures, 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote. If the pending bills to lower the number of signatures pass in Oklahoma, Alabama, and North Carolina, then Tennessee will require more signatures (under this bill) to qualify a new party than any other state except California, Georgia and Texas. The 2012 requirement in Tennessee under this bill is 40,042 signatures. Tennessee didn’t require any signatures at all to qualify a party before 1961, and yet never had a ballot with more than six parties on it.

Oklahoma Bill, Moving Petition Deadline to March 1, Advances

March 31st, 2011

On March 31, the Oklahoma Senate Rules Committee passed HB 1615. The bill has already passed the House. It moves the petition deadline for a new party to submit its petition from May 1 to March 1. It also moves the primary (for office other than President) from July to June. It even says that a new party cannot start its petition drive later than December 31 of the year before the election. This bill is clearly unconstitutional. An identical bill, SB 602, has passed the Senate and is pending in the House Rules Committee.

Meanwhile, the bill to lower the number of signatures for a new party, HB 1058, has passed the House but has not yet passed any Senate Committee. The deadline for it to pass the Senate Rules Committee is April 7.

Canadian Debates Set, but Green Party Leader is Still Excluded

March 30th, 2011

The national Canadian election debates will take place on April 12 (in English) and April 14 (in French). See this story. The Broadcasting Consortium is still excluding the Green Party on the grounds that the party has never elected a member of Parliament, although the party has candidates in all districts in the May 2 election.

The logic of excluding parties that have not yet elected any representatives would have meant that the Republican Party would have been excluded in any 1854 debates. However, the party (which was only formed on July 6, 1854) went on to win more seats in the U.S. House in the autumn 1854 elections than any other party.

Idaho Senate Passes Bill for Party Registration

March 30th, 2011

On March 30, the Idaho Senate passed SB 1198, the bill to begin asking registered voters to choose a party. The bill also provides for separate primary ballots for each party. Members of one party could only choose that party’s primary ballot. Each political party would decide for itself whether to let independents vote in its primary. The vote was 28-7.

Idaho has four qualified parties. They all nominate by primary. However, elections officials don’t print up primary ballots for parties that have no contested primaries, and generally the Libertarian Party and the Constitution Party don’t have contested primaries.

Washington State Legislature Passes Bill to Force Pierce County to Use All-Mail Voting

March 30th, 2011

On March 25, the Washington legislature passed SB 5124, which requires all counties to abolish voting at the polls (except that each county could keep one voting center for voters who don’t wish to vote by mail). The existing law let each county decide for itself, but every county in Washington except Pierce County was already voting entirely by mail. See this story.

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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.