Process Begins for Voters to Sign Up for Americans Elect Presidential Primary

June 30th, 2011

On June 30, the Americans Elect web page was expanded, so that anyone can sign up to become a voter in the party’s process for choosing a presidential nominee. Those who sign up are also given a chance to answer 64 questions on policy. The web address is www.AmericansElect.org.

The voter sign-up asks for a name, an e-mail address, and also asks the person signing up to choose a pin number. There seems to be no restriction on who can sign up. There is no question asking if the person signing up is an adult, or a U.S. citizen.

The page, as of June 30, also says that the new national signature tally for American Elect ballot access petitions is 1,430,475, and increase of 88,000 in just two days.

In the next few days, the Alaska Division of Elections, and the Kansas Secretary of State, will probably say that the party has obtained enough valid signatures in each of those states to appear on the 2012 ballot.



Ohio House Passes Bill Setting Early February Petition Deadline for New Party Petitions

June 29th, 2011

On June 29, the Ohio House again passed HB 194. It had already been passed by the Senate. The House then (on June 29) accepted the Senate’s amendments, so the bill is through the legislature. The bill moves the presidential primary to the first week in May, and sets the petition deadline for new parties at 90 days before the primary. This gives Ohio a petition deadline that is almost certainly unconstitutionally early, even though the bill does improve the deadline. There are no reported decisions that uphold a petition deadline that early, and there are 15 decisions that strike down petition deadlines that early, including Williams v Rhodes, a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The old deadline, in November of odd years, was declared unconstitutional in 2006, and Ohio officials will now probably say that HB 194 cures the constitutional infirmity.

Delaware Legislature Passes Bill Letting Voters Switch Parties; Will Help Ballot Access

June 29th, 2011

On June 29, the Delaware House passed both SB 118 and SB 89. Both bills are now through the legislature. SB 89 moves the presidential primary from February to April, and SB 118 lets voters change party registration up until 60 days before the presidential primary. These bills, assuming they are signed into law, will indirectly help minor parties to get on the ballot. Minor parties need about 625 registered members to be on the ballot in 2012. The old law made getting these registrations very difficult, because voters couldn’t switch parties during the last months of an odd year before a presidential election year. But the new law will permit party switches throughout odd years, and also in the first two months of a presidential election year. Thanks to Frontloading HQ for this news.

Philly News Article on Pennsylvania Ballot Access

June 29th, 2011

Philly News of June 29 has this article about Pennsylvania ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates. The article was undoubtedly triggered by Ralph Nader’s recent letter to members of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on that subject.

Maine Struggles to get Precise Election Data Needed to Determine Political Party Ongoing Status

June 29th, 2011

In 2009, the Maine legislature eased the vote test for a party to remain ballot-qualified. The old test required a party to poll 5% of the vote for the office at the top of the ticket, at either of the last two elections. This was a difficult test, but the Green Party satisfied it by polling over 5% for Governor in all gubernatorial elections 1994 through 2006.

In 2009, the legislature changed the test for a party to remain ballot-qualified. No longer did it need to poll 5% for a top office. Instead, it merely had to have at least 10,000 registered members who voted in the general election. It didn’t matter whom they voted for. The legislature could have made this much simpler by just saying a party remained ballot-qualified if it had at least 10,000 registered members, but that is not what they did.

As a result, Maine election officials are required to do an elaborate calculation of how many registered members in each party voted in a general election. This job is so difficult, Maine still hasn’t finished the 2010 calculation. The Maine Secretary of State knows that at least 16,272 registered Greens did vote in November 2010, so the party is safely on the ballot for 2012. But the calculation is still incomplete, because six towns still haven’t reported the data to the Secretary of State. There is no problem, because the Green Party easily exceeded the requirement, but if the party’s turnout had been significantly worse, it might still not know for sure whether it had met the test. In November 2010 there were 34,255 registered Greens, so it isn’t surprising that at least 10,000 of them voted.

Clerk of U.S. House of Representatives Publishes November 2010 Election Results

June 29th, 2011

Ever since 1920, the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives has been publishing a book that shows how many votes each candidate for Congress received in the preceding election. The Clerk has just published the latest volume, which is titled “Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 2, 2010.” The book is interesting because it includes tables at the back, showing the vote for each house of Congress by party. These tables will not recognize a minor party candidate for Congress as a candidate of that party, unless the state prints the party’s label on the ballot. For example, Oklahoma and Tennessee have extremely easy ballot access for non-presidential independent candidates, but extremely difficult ballot access for new and minor parties. Therefore, minor party candidates in Oklahoma and Tennessee for over ten years have all been on the ballot as “independent”, so the Clerk’s tables show those votes in the Independent column, not the column of any particular party.

Even with that limitation, the 2010 chart for U.S. House lists the Libertarian Party’s national vote total as 1,002,511. The Clerk’s tables have credited the Libertarian Party with over 1,000,000 votes for U.S. House in five elections now. Besides 2010, they are: 2000 1,610,292; 2002 1,030,189; 2004 1,040,465; and and 2008 1,083,096. The Clerk’s booklet has never credited any other party (besides the Democrats and Republicans) with as many as 1,000,000 votes for U.S. House. The Progressive Party had over 1,000,000 votes for U.S. House in 1912, but the booklet didn’t exist back then. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the news about the book.

Arkansas Judge Rules Initiative Petition Backers May Have 10 Days More to Gather More Signatures

June 29th, 2011

On June 28, an Arkansas state circuit judge in Sebastian County ruled that organizers of a local initiative may have ten more days after their petition was rejected, to get more valid signatures. See this story. Arkansas is the only state in the nation that gives petitioning groups extra time to get more signatures, after they are told that their original petition lacks enough valid signatures.

Wisconsin Legislator Files Lawsuit to Obtain Place on Ballot

June 29th, 2011

On June 28, Wisconsin Assemblymember John Nygren filed a lawsuit in state court, arguing that he should be on the ballot in one of the upcoming special elections for State Senate. He needed 400 valid signatures but elections officials said he only had 398 valid signatures. See this story.

Prescott Mayor Wins Ballot Access Case

June 29th, 2011

On June 28, a Superior Court in Yavapai County, Arizona, ruled that Prescott Mayor Marlin Kuykendall should remain on the ballot in the August 2011 election. Kuykendall is running for re-election. See this story. His ballot position had been challenged because he did not sign his Statement of Campaign Organization form.

Norman Ornstein and Fred Smith Debate Compulsory Voting for the U.S.

June 29th, 2011

On the evening of June 27, Norman Ornstein, co-director of AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project, debated Fred Smith, President of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, on the subject of whether the United States should make voting compulsory. See this story. The debate was held in Washington, D.C., and was moderated by Mark Green, former Public Advocate for New York city. The debate was one in a series sponsored by Ralph Nader and the Center for the Study of Responsive Law.

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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.