Gary Johnson Virtually Withdraws from Republican Presidential Race

November 29th, 2011

On November 30, Gary Johnson told reporters in his home state of New Mexico that he sees no chance of pulling a large vote in the New Hampshire Republican primary, mostly because he was not included in 14 of the last 16 Republican debates. In the interview, he also seems to be leaning toward seeking the Libertarian nomination. See the report here from New Mexico Capitol Report.



Colorado Says Americans Elect Petition is Valid

November 29th, 2011

On November 30, the Colorado Secretary of State’s office confirmed that the Americans Elect petition for party status has enough valid signatures. The party submitted 17,954 signatures, and needed 10,000 valid. The petition contained 12,191 valid signatures. Americans Elect is the first party to qualify by petition in Colorado since 2004.

Buddy Roemer Says His Ideal Vice-Presidential Running Mate Would be Senator Joseph Lieberman

November 28th, 2011

This newspaper story quotes Buddy Roemer has saying that his ideal running mate would be U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman. However, the story then says that Senator Lieberman has thanked Roemer, but that Lieberman has no interest in running for Vice-President again. In 2000 he was the Democratic Party’s nominee for vice-president.

The most interesting aspect of this story is that it seems to show Roemer’s intention to run for President outside of the major parties remains strong.

Brief Filed in U.S. District Court in Lawsuit Against Independent Candidate Petition Deadline

November 28th, 2011

On November 22, the ACLU filed this brief in U.S. District Court in Kelly v Johnson, the case against the March petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates.

New Hampshire Newspaper Story Doubts Whether it Matters if Presidential Primary is Open or Closed

November 28th, 2011

The Portsmouth Herald, a daily newspaper in New Hampshire, has this article exploring whether it makes any difference that independents may vote in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary. The sources quoted in the article all say that even if only registered Republicans could vote in that primary, the typical outcome would be the same. One source says exit poll data confirms that in 2008, even if only registered Republicans had been voting in that primary, John McCain still would have won.

Washington Post Slams Virginia Over Few Choices on Ballot in November 8 Legislative Elections

November 27th, 2011

The Washington Post has this editorial, criticizing Virginia because, at the November 8, 2011 legislative elections, there were only 27 State House races with both a Democrat and a Republican on the ballot, out of 100 seats.

Unfortunately, the editorial does not tell its readers that Virginia is currently arguing in federal court that if must preserve its ballot access requirement that no one can circulate a petition to get someone on the ballot if the circulator doesn’t live in the district. Virginia’s Attorney General argues that without that restriction, the ballot would be too crowded. Virginia requires petitions, both for general election access by independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties, and also for a candidate to get on a primary ballot.

The lawsuit, Lux v Judd, is pending in U.S. District Court in front of a Judge who already upheld the restriction last year. Then the case went to the Fourth Circuit, which sent it back and said to rehear the case. The Fourth Circuit also said that the argument that the restriction is needed to show that the candidate has support is not a valid reason to uphold the law. But the Fourth Circuit gave the state a chance to come up with some new arguments.

Another reason there are so few candidates on the Virginia ballot is because of the state’s restrictive definition of “political party.” The Virginia law requires a group to poll at least 10% for a statewide race, to be a qualified party. Virginia’s 10% requirement is tied for third most difficult in the nation, after Pennsylvania’s 15% registration test, and Alabama’s 20% vote test. The median vote test of the 50 states is 2%. Except for the Reform Party 1995 through 1997, no party other than the Democratic or Republican Parties has been ballot-qualified in Virginia in the last 40 years. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

New Zealand Votes to Keep Proportional Representation

November 27th, 2011

On November 26, New Zealand held Parliamentary elections, and also voted on a ballot question. The ballot question asked voters if they wish to keep Proportional Representation, which has been in use in New Zealand since 1996. A majority of voters voted to keep it. See this story.

The Parliamentary election results show that the following parties have won the following number of seats in the 121-member Parliament: National 60, Labour 35, Green 13, New Zealand First 8, Maori 3, ACT 1, United Future 1. The results are not entirely final yet. The Green Party has never had such a good showing in New Zealand before.

New York Conservative Party Nominee for Local Partisan Office Defeated His Democratic and Republican Opponents

November 27th, 2011

On November 8, New York held local partisan elections. In Shelter Island, a town in eastern Long Island, a Conservative Party nominee who was not the nominee of either major party was elected to the town council. Paul D. Shepard, the Conservative Party nominee, polled 585 votes. Voters were electing two council members and were invited to vote for two nominees. The other seat was won by a Republican who had the Conservative cross-nomination. That person got 709 votes. The Republican who didn’t have the Conservative Party’s cross-nomination got 543 votes; the two Democrats got, respectively, 545 votes and 476 votes. Thanks to Kevin Reilly for this news.

Official Returns for Syracuse City Council Election Due December 1; Green Party Nominee Trails by 82 Votes in Unofficial Returns

November 27th, 2011

Syracuse, New York, held partisan city elections for city council on November 8, 2011. The Onondaga County Board of Elections web page says the official returns will be released by December 1. The unofficial returns show that, in the 4th district, Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins lost to Democratic/Working Families Party nominee Khalid Bey by 82 votes. The unofficial returns are: Bey 1,154; Hawkins 1,072.

The unofficial returns don’t give a breakdown of the Bey vote by party. The official returns will provide that data. Assuming that the official returns still show Bey the winner, chances are they will also show that no one party received as much as 50% of the vote, and that if the Working Families Party had cross-endorsed Hawkins, then Hawkins probably would have won.

Jon Huntsman Says he Hasn’t Talked to Americans Elect

November 27th, 2011

Jon Huntsman, in this interview, says he hasn’t even talked to leaders of Americans Elect, and that in any event he will support whomever gets the Republican presidential nomination.

The reporter garbled the name and refers to it as “America’s Elect”. UPDATE: here is a link to a news story that contains a you tube of the Huntsman interview. The story notes that it took some coaxing for the host to get Huntsman to say he would support the Republican nominee, whoever it is.

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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.