Florida Fails to Persuade 3-Judge Court in Washington, D.C., to Expedite Case over 2011 Election Law Changes

October 28th, 2011

On October 28, a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., denied Florida’s request to expedite the lawsuit over whether Florida’s 2011 election law changes violate the federal Voting Rights Act. See this story. Five counties in Florida are under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The Florida legislature earlier this year passed an omnibus election law bill which, arguably, violates the Voting Rights Act. Florida could have asked the U.S. Justice Department to pre-clear the changes, but instead Florida opted to ask a court to do that instead.



Ron Paul Tells Fox News he Won’t Rule Out Running Outside Major Parties

October 28th, 2011

Ron Paul’s recent interview on Fox News included a discussion on the possibility that Paul would run outside the major parties. See this story.

Massachusetts Secretary of State Files Brief in State Supreme Court on Presidential Stand-ins

October 28th, 2011

On October 27, the Massachusetts Secretary of State filed this 20-page brief in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in Libertarian Association of Massachusetts v Galvin, SJ-2011-0348. This is the lawsuit on whether the existing law does or does not provide for presidential stand-ins. Earlier this year, the First Circuit had said there is no federal constitutional right for presidential stand-ins, but had suggested that the Massachusetts state courts should settle whether the law does in fact permit it.

Although the Secretary of State’s brief is fairly lengthy, nowhere does it acknowledge that the law was interpreted to permit stand-ins, at least for vice-president, in 1980, 1996, 2000, and 2004. The brief claims that the Supreme Judicial Court should not hear the case because the Libertarian Party lacks standing and there is no ongoing case or controversy. The brief does admit that in 2007, the Secretary of State told the Libertarian Party that if the party intended to use a stand-in presidential candidate, that the Secretary would prepare a form that allows members of the party to request the substitution of the stand-in presidential candidate. See footnote 5 on page nine of the brief.

Texas Green Party 2010 Ballot Access Lawsuit is Still in Court

October 28th, 2011

In 2010, the Texas Green Party successfully petitioned for a spot on the Texas ballot, and appeared on the ballot, despite a Texas Democratic Party lawsuit that said the party’s petition drive might have been paid for by a corporation. That lawsuit was Texas Democratic Party v Texas Green Party, Travis Co., d-1-gn-10-1924. Before the 2010 election, a lower court judge had removed the party from the ballot, but the Texas Supreme Court had reversed that order and put it back on.

Now the corporation that paid for the Green Party’s petition drive has filed a federal lawsuit, pointing out that (1) Texas law already permits corporations to contribute to parties for “normal overhead, administrative and operating costs” and that petitioning for minor parties fits that description; (2) regardless of that point, it is unconstitutional for a state to forbid a corporation from making a donation to a political party. The new federal case is Take Initiative America, Inc., v Texas Democratic Party, western district, 1:11-cv-701-SS. If a trial is held in this case, it will be in September 2012. It seems likely that the state court case will now be dismissed, and the federal court lawsuit will take its place. One of the co-plaintiffs in the case is Free & Equal, Inc., the petitioning firm that collected the signatures.

Americans Elect Web Page Posts New National Ballot Access Petition Count

October 27th, 2011

The Americans Elect web page now says the group has obtained 1,903,444 signatures on petitions to get on the ballot, so far. This contrasts with the figure of three weeks ago, which was 1,829,264.

Elliot Ackerman, A Leader of Americans Elect, Publishes Criticism of Electoral College

October 27th, 2011

Elliot Ackerman, Chief Operating Officer for Americans Elect, has this Huffington Post piece, criticizing the Electoral College. The piece also criticizes the presidential primary process used by the two major parties.

New Hampshire Major Party Presidential Primary Ballots Becoming Crowded

October 27th, 2011

Filing for the New Hampshire presidential primary closes at the end of the day, Friday, October 28. So far there are 24 candidates running in the Republican presidential primary of January 10, 2012, and 12 candidates running in the Democratic presidential primary.

Most presidential election years, New Hampshire has the nation’s most crowded presidential primary ballots. Anyone may qualify by submitting a check for $1,000. New Hampshire encourages lots of candidates, in order to increase the filing fee revenue.

The most crowded presidential primary ballot in the nation’s history was the Democratic ballot in New Hampshire in 1992, when 36 candidates qualified.

Hearing Set in Chicago Ballot Access Lawsuit

October 27th, 2011

On November 2, at 9:15 a.m., U.S. District Court Judge Robert Dow will hear arguments in Stone v Neal, 1:10-cv-07727, which challenges Chicago ballot access laws that require 12,500 valid signatures for each of the three citywide offices, and which further say that voters can only sign for one candidate for each office. Chicago city offices are all non-partisan. Chicago elects its citywide officers in February of the odd years before presidential election years. If no one gets as much as 50%, there is a runoff in April.

Plaintiffs argue that if candidates for statewide office can get on a partisan primary ballot with only 5,000 signatures, it is nonsensical to require them to get 12,500 signatures to run within Chicago, which is of course only a subset of the entire state of Illinois.

U.S. District Court Judge Won’t Short-Circuit US Government Lawsuit Against John Edwards over Definition of “Contributions”

October 27th, 2011

On October 26, U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Eagles, an Obama appointee, refused to dismiss the U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit against John Edwards. See this story. The ruling was oral, and the judge has not issued a written opinion yet. The case is USA v Edwards, middle district, North Carolina, 1:11-CR-161. Here is a court document that summarizes the federal government’s case.

In 2007 and early 2008, John Edwards was a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, and for a while he was considered just as likely as Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama to get the nomination. At the time Edwards was involved in an affair, which was secret from the world and from Edwards’ wife. However, a wealthy backer of John Edwards was aware of the situation, and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a very close associate of Edwards, who used the money to pay the living expenses of the mistress, and to pay for the elaborate activity needed to keep her existence a secret. The wealthy backer was an elderly woman who was a very close personal friend of Edwards, and who admired Edwards hugely. No one believes that her motivation in giving the money was other than a very deep friendship; she was not seeking favors from a possible future President Edwards.

Much later, the U.S. Attorney General brought a criminal case against Edwards, on the theory that the money should be considered a campaign expense, and that campaign contribution limits should have been obeyed. Edwards tried to get the case stopped, arguing that the money should not be considered a campaign expense, but so far, the case will go ahead. This case is philosophically important because it reaches fundamental problems about the definition of campaign contributions. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

New Mexico Secretary of State Informs New Mexico Tax Policy Office to Include Libertarian Party and Independent Party on Income Tax Forms

October 27th, 2011

New Mexico is one of the thirteen states that gives state income taxpayers an opportunity to send a donation to a qualified political party, via the state income tax form. Except for Ohio, all these thirteen states list the qualified parties and let the taxpayer choose one.

Unfortunately, New Mexico has a recent history of poor election administration, and of mistakes. Twice in the last ten years, when the New Mexico Tax office has asked the New Mexico Secretary of State which parties should be listed on the income tax form, the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office has erroneously told the Tax office to just list the Democratic and Republican Parties. This last occurred in 2010, and the 2010 New Mexico state income tax forms only included the Democratic and Republican Parties, even though they should have included the Libertarian, Constitution, and Independent Parties.

Fortunately, the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office has done a better job this month, and has informed the Tax office to include the Libertarian and Independent Parties on the 2011 forms. The Constitution Party is no longer ballot-qualified because it did not run any candidates in 2010. The Independent Party is little-known in New Mexico. It was created by Ralph Nader in 2008 and because it polled over one-half of 1% for President in 2008, it retains ballot qualification in 2010 and 2012.

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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.