North Carolina Ballot Access Hearing Set

May 31st, 2011

On June 1, the North Carolina House Elections Committee will hear HB 32, at 2:10 p.m. This is the bill that lowers the number of signatures for minor and new parties, and independent candidates. Thanks to Brian Irving for this news.



Ohio Libertarian Activist Appointed to City Council of Perrysburg

May 30th, 2011

On May 24, Todd Grayson, communications director for the Ohio Libertarian Party, was appointed to the city council of Perrysburg, Ohio. Perrysburg is a city of 21,000 in northwest Ohio. It has nonpartisan city elections. See this story, which does not mention his affiliation. Thanks to Kevin Knedler for this news.

Final Brief Filed in U.S. District Court in Case Challenging Two Details of California Top-Two Law

May 30th, 2011

On May 30, the plaintiffs in Chamness v Bowen filed this rebuttal brief. Chamness v Bowen is the federal lawsuit that challenges two particular details of California’s top-two primary election system: (1) although California prints write-in space on November ballots for Congress and state office, those write-ins can never be counted, even if a write-in candidate receives the most votes; (2) California lets some party members list their party on the ballot but won’t let others do so.

All briefs are now in, and the hearing will be on June 13 in Los Angeles.

History of John B. Anderson’s 1980 Independent Presidential Candidacy About to be Published

May 30th, 2011

Jim Mason’s book “No Holding Back: the 1980 John B. Anderson Presidential Campaign” is about to be published, and can be pre-ordered at Amazon. This book is considerably longer than an earlier history about that campaign, “Diary of a Dark Horse.”

Anderson made history by being the first independent presidential candidate (as opposed to a minor party presidential candidate) to get on the ballot of all states. In order to do that, he had to win all of his 10 ballot access lawsuits, which he did. The most significant of his victories was the U.S. Supreme Court decision Anderson v Celebrezze, which struck down early petition deadlines for independent and minor party presidential candidates.

Anderson pioneered the technique of using a stand-in vice-presidential candidate on his petitions, and then asking states to let him substitute his actual nominee, Patrick Lucey, a former Democratic Governor of Wisconsin. Anderson didn’t choose Lucey until August 27, 1980, too late for Lucey’s name to be included on petitions in virtually all states. Anderson sued the handful of states that didn’t let him substitute, and won all those cases. Unfortunately he didn’t have the resources to sue South Dakota, the one state that wouldn’t print Lucey’s name on the ballot. Thanks to Darcy Richardson for the news about the book’s release.

German State of Bremen Joins Austria in Lowering Voting Age to Sixteen

May 30th, 2011

One of Germany’s states, Bremen, has recently lowered the voting age to sixteen. See this story. The article says Austria had previously lowered the voting age to sixteen. Thanks to Sam Harley for the link.

Texas Legislature Passes Bill Altering Non-Presidential Independent Petition Deadline

May 29th, 2011

On Sunday, May 29, the Texas legislature passed SB 100. It leaves the date of the primary in March, but moves the runoff primary from April to the fourth Tuesday in May. Because the current law says independent candidate petitions (for office other than President) are due 30 days after the runoff primary, this moves the independent candidate petition deadline from May to June. In 2012 the petition deadline will be June 24.

Oddly, though, the independent presidential petition deadline will be May 14, because the code section governing that deadline is in a separate place and it not tied to the date of any primary or runoff primary. Assuming the bill is signed into law, it will be very likely that an independent presidential candidate will win a lawsuit against the May 14 deadline. There is no state interest in requiring an independent presidential candidate to submit a petition forty days before the petition for other independent candidates. Even without this discriminatory aspect, the presidential deadline is so early that it appears to violate the U.S. Supreme Court decision Anderson v Celebrezze.

SB 100 also moves the deadline for non-presidential candidates to file a declaration of candidacy from early January of the election year, to the second Monday in December of the odd year before the election year. That deadline applies to independent candidates, minor party candidates, and major party candidates. No other state has anything remotely similar, as applied to independent candidates. The whole point of having procedures for independent candidates is to give voters an alternative if the primaries produce unsatisfactory nominees. But the filing requirement makes the emergence of a new candidate legally impossible.

Socialist Party Selects Date and Location for Presidential Nominating Convention

May 29th, 2011

The Socialist Party will holds its presidential nominating convention in Los Angeles, October 14-16, 2011. The location is the Holiday Inn at the Los Angeles Airport. The hotel is at the corner of Century and La Cienega Boulevards. Thanks to Stewart Alexander for this news.

Colorado Governor Signs Bill for Earlier Primary, Earlier Petition Dates

May 29th, 2011

On May 27, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed SB 189, which moves the primary from August to June. It also moves the qualifying deadline for an indepedendent presidential candidate, or the presidential nominee of an unqualified party, from late June to early June. And, it moves the petition deadline for a group to submit a petition to become a qualified party from March to January.

The petition deadline change for groups to become qualified parties is somewhat ameliorated by the fact that an unqualified party can still place nominees on the November ballot, with the party label, via candidate petitions that are due in June. However, the new earlier deadline for presidential independent candidates would likely be unconstitutional under Anderson v Celebrezze. Lower courts have invalidated petition deadlines for presidential candidates, in June, in five states, and there are no decisions since Anderson v Celebrezze upholding an independent presidential deadline in June.

Ironically, the current Secretary of State, Scott Gessler, represented the Socialist Party’s presidential candidate, Walt Brown, in a 2004 lawsuit filed by Brown against the July 4 deadline, and he won that case on statutory grounds. Yet now that Gessler is Secretary of State, instead of an attorney in private practice, he supported moving the deadline to early June. Thanks to Josh Putnam of Frontloading HQ for the news that the Governor signed the bill.

Gatewood Galbraith Now Has 5,000 Signatures on Petition to be on Kentucky Ballot for Governor this Year

May 28th, 2011

Gatewood Galbraith’s campaign says it now has 5,000 signatures on its petition to be on the Kentucky ballot as an independent candidate for Governor on November 8, 2011. See this story. The signatures aren’t due until August, and the drive will continue until it has 10,000. He had been the Reform Party nominee for Governor in 1999 and had polled 15.4%. He will be the only person on the ballot this year (assuming he has enough signatures) for Governor, other than the Democratic and Republican nominees. We know this is true because Kentucky requires a declaration of candidacy in April for petitioning candidates for state (but not federal) office. Galbraith is the only candidate for Governor who filed such a declaration.

In 2010, Kentucky had been one of only five states with only major party nominees on the statewide ballot. The 5,000 signature requirement is not terribly difficult but Kentucky is a state in which the minor parties traditionally don’t get on the ballot in the odd-year gubernatorial election years. There has never been a Constitution Party, or Libertarian Party, or Green Party, nominee on the ballot for Governor of Kentucky. Currently the Libertarian Party is circulating a petition for State Treasurer.

Louisiana Bill that Helps Independent Candidates Passes House Unanimously

May 27th, 2011

On May 26, the Louisiana House passed HB 533 unanimously. This is the Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bill. Among other things, it says independent candidates will have “independent” on the ballot next to their names. Current law requires that “no party” be on the ballot next to their names (although current law permits “independent” for presidential independent candidates).

The bill also removes the names of presidential elector candidates from the general election ballot. Currently, Louisiana is one of only six states that still prints the names of presidential elector candidates on the ballot.

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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.