Kentucky Gubernatorial Poll

July 31st, 2011

A recent poll for the Kentucky gubernatorial race of November 2, 2011, shows these results: Democrat Steve Beshear, 52%; Republican David Williams, 28%; independent Gatewood Galbraith 9%; undecided 11%. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.



Americans Elect Official Suggests Candidate Certification Committee Will Bar Candidates from Nomination Process Based on Their Political Views

July 31st, 2011

According to this story in the July 31 Christian Science Monitor, Elliot Ackerman, chief operating officer for Americans Elect, recently told the press that the group’s Candidate Certification Committee will “make sure we have candidates who bridge the center of American public opinion.” This is the first indication that Americans Elect will filter candidates for its presidential nomination based on their ideas. Until this comment, Americans Elect had said, or implied, that any person who has the qualifications to be President (based on the history of actual past Presidents, i.e., been a Governor, or member of Congress, or a Cabinet member, or as an important wartime General) is eligible to compete for the nomination. Thanks to Irregular Times for the link. Ackerman’s comment is at the top of page three of the article.

Knoxville Newspaper Story on New Ballot Access Lawsuit in Tennessee

July 30th, 2011

The Knoxville News Sentinel has this story on the new ballot access lawsuit filed two weeks ago by the Constitution and Green Parties. The lawsuit has gained a great deal of publicity. By contrast, when the original ballot access lawsuit was filed in 2007 by three minor parties, it got no publicity at all when it was filed, and even after it won in September 2010, it got very little publicity.

Center for Voting and Democracy (“Fairvote”) Explains Why it Doesn’t Support Approval Voting

July 30th, 2011

The Center for Voting and Democracy, also known as Fairvote, is a national organization that works for Instant Runoff Voting and proportional representation. It really posted this statement of why it doesn’t also support approval voting.

Independent Voting’s President Jacqueline Salit’s Past Views on Political Parties

July 30th, 2011

Between January 1984 and December 1994, the New Alliance Party published a weekly newspaper, “The National Alliance.” During the entire period of the newspaper’s existence, the masthead listed Jacqueline Salit at the top of the roster as “Executive Editor.” Today, Salit is President of Independent Voting, which holds itself out as the leader of independent voters in the United States, and which teaches that political parties are harmful to society.

In the January 26, 1989 issue of “The National Alliance”, there is a letter to the editor which criticizes the Soviet Union for holding elections in which only one party, the Communist Party, was allowed to compete, although the 1989 elections were giving voters a choice of Communist Party candidates to vote for. Following the letter there is this response:

“The Alliance replies: You raise an important question, especially since we consider democracy the cutting edge issue in America today. Our response requires looking at just what a political party is.

If you asked most people, they would probably answer that it is a group of people who share certain political beliefs and meet certain organizational requirements so they can try to run candidates for elected office. But we get a much deeper understanding by looking at how political parties came into being historically. For parties as we know them in fact only came into existence with the growth of capitalism.

They were first created to represent the interests of emerging classes. In Europe, there were parties of the landed gentry, parties of the capitalists, parties of the peasants, and finally parties of the working class. Small splinter parties have come into existence and sometimes won parliamentary representation, but all parties have a class character.

In the US, the Democrats were the party of the southern slaveholders straight out. The Republicans were the party of the northern industrialists. The working class had no party of its own to operate on a national scale, and most working people backed the Republicans during the Civil War and long after on the grounds that wage slavery was better than chattel slavery. After the war, the Democrats joined the ranks of the capitalists.

The working class made a great effort to create its own party – the Socialist Party – but it was repressed during World War I for its opposition to that war and faded away thereafter. The next attempt – by the Communist Party – was bought out by Roosevelt in the New Deal. Thereafter, the US has functioned under a one party – capitalist party – system. That one party has two major factions – the Democrats and Republicans – to be sure, and individuals have the formal right to form as many parties as they want.

But the sad fact is that – as a result of lack of access to the ballot, the media and big money the capitalist parties control – the vast majority of the American people are excluded from the political process except as extras in a Miller beer commercial: “Less filling! Tastes great! Less Filling! Tastes great!”

Thus the fight for democracy which Lenora Fulani and the New Alliance Party are leading is the fight for the working class majority in this country to have its own party.

As for the recent developments in the Soviet Union, we find them very exciting. It is true that the Soviet Union is a one party state, but that one party is the party of the working class. The Soviet Union no longer has a capitalist class and thus there is no basis for having a second party – unless it is a party committed to restoring capitalism. Let there be no doubt, the restoration of capitalism is unacceptable to the Soviet people.

The serious issue facing the Soviets is the expansion of mass participation within the Communist Party. That they are now to hold national multi-candidate elections is a dramatic development, the result of Gorbachev’s decision to mobilize the people to energize the Soviet economy.

There is absolutely no reason to revive the Cadets or the Mensheviks, either in spirit or in fact. Those parties lost their right to exist during World War I, when they supported the tsar sending hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers to the slaughterhouse to influence who would play the leading role in carving up Africa – Germany or England and France.

You do note that parties which advocate the murder of ‘sections of the population who are different due to race, sex, religion, national origin, disability or sexual orientation’ should not be allowed. Agreed.

But how about parties which support policies they know will lead to mass starvation in the Third World, the random murder of civilians by contra bandits, and the mushrooming of homelessness, poverty and racism here in the U.S.?

This is not to say that we advocate a one party system dogmatically. Obviously a multiplicity of parties can only advance democracy in America today. And even in a society organized by the working class, there are pushes and pulls within the class over race, sex, strata, sexual orientation, etc., and it is not inconceivable that there could be more than one working class party. History will tell.

We would like to go a step further, however. NAP has constituted itself as a political party out of necessity – to engage the capitalist parties on their own terrain. But why not have a non-party system? Just for the record, the US Constitution makes no mention whatsoever of parties.

Under a no-party system, candidates would run with public funding, and put out their positions through free and equal time on the major networks. The voters would elect those candidates who most clearly articulated their own social vision. That is exactly now Nicaragua ran its 1984 presidential election.

And that – due to having an explicitly one-party system in which elections are candidate vs. candidate rather than party vs. party – is what the Soviet Union is moving towards.”

North Carolina Senator Suggests Legislature Will Work on Ballot Access This Year

July 30th, 2011

This news story, from a blog that covers North Carolina politics, quotes Senator Tom Apodaca, chair of the Senate Rules Committee, as predicting that the legislature will consider ballot access this year. HB 32, which improves ballot access, has already passed the House and the Senate Rules Committee, but it has been unclear when it will go to the Senate. The regular legislative session for this year is already over, but there is a special session; also North Carolina has two-year sessions, so the bill could also advance early next year in the second half of the regular session.

Briefing Schedule Set in District of Columbia Write-in Counting Lawsuit

July 30th, 2011

The U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. circuit, has set a briefing schedule in Libertarian Party v D.C. Board of Elections, the case over whether election officials must count the votes cast for a declared write-in candidate for President. The three briefs should all be filed by October 25.

The case arose in 2008, when Bob Barr qualified for write-in status, in accordance with the D.C. Board of Elections’ own regulations. In order to achieve write-in status, Barr had to file the names and declarations of candidacy of three candidates for presidential elector. No other presidential candidate complied with this procedure. But the Board still wouldn’t tally his write-ins. The U.S. District Court then ruled that the government interest in saving money and trouble is more important than the right of voters to have their votes counted.

Tucson Daily Newspaper Belatedly Covers Ballot Qualification for Americans Elect

July 30th, 2011

The July 30 Arizona Daily Star, Tucson’s daily newspaper, has this story about Americans Elect being a qualified party in Arizona. Americans Elect had turned in its party petition in Arizona on April 13, and in June the Secretary of State had said that the petition is valid. The story is interesting because it reveals that the Arizona petition drive used the services of 30 paid circulators.

California Governor Signs Bill Moving Presidential Primary from February to June

July 29th, 2011

On July 29, California Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 80, which abolishes the February presidential primary, and merges it with the June primary held for other office.

Governor Brown has not acted on certain other election law bills that passed the same day that AB 80 did. They include SB 168, which outlaws paying initiative, referendum and recall circulators per-signature; AB 459, the National Popular Vote Plan bill; and AB 461, which legalizes write-in votes when the voter forgot, or didn’t know, to “X” the box next to the name written in. The Governor must decide what to do with these bills by August 8.

Maine Supreme Court Sets Oral Argument Date in Nader Case Against Democratic Party Behavior in 2004

July 29th, 2011

The Maine Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Nader v Democratic National Committee on September 14, at 2 p.m. The case is a tort and request for damages, filed by Ralph Nader against Democratic Party dirty tricks in the 2004 election. The Court will hear arguments over whether a trial should be permitted. Similar lawsuits filed by Nader earlier in federal court were defeated by the federal statute of limitations, but Maine has a six-year statute of limitations so that isn’t a problem for Nader in this case. Maine was one of the states in 2004 in which Democrats tried to keep Nader off the ballot, although they did not succeed in Maine. However, the lawsuit covers activity in many states.

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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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Essays by Richard Winger:

Additional articles/essays:

  • 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.