Link to Florida Republican Presidential Primary Results

January 31st, 2012

See here for the Florida Secretary of State’s web page, with results for all nine candidates who were listed on the ballot.



Virginia Supreme Court Won’t Block Lawsuit Challenging Legislature’s U.S. House Districting Plan

January 31st, 2012

On January 31, the Virginia Supreme Court refused to derail the lawsuit filed to invalidate the legislature’s U.S. House redistricting plan. The lower state court had said that the plaintiffs have standing. They are charging that the legislature can’t draw U.S. House districts, because the state constitution says the redistricting must be done in the odd year after any census. The 2011 session of the legislature did not pass any U.S. House redistricting plan. See this story.

This makes it very likely that the U.S. House district boundaries won’t be settled for some time. In the meantime, statewide independent and minor party candidates cannot be petitioning, because Virginia has a distribution requirement for statewide petitions. Also, minor party and independent candidates for U.S. House can’t be petitioning either.

The lawsuit is Little v Virginia Board of Elections. In the Supreme Court it is number 120148. In the lower court, in the city of Richmond, it is CL11-5253.

Texas Redistricting Blog Says April 17 is More Likely for Texas Primary than April 3

January 31st, 2012

Texas Redistricting blog here says that an April 17 primary for Texas is more likely than an April 3 primary. If the primary does indeed get moved to April 17, independent presidential candidates will only have 27 days to collect 80,778 valid signatures of voters who didn’t vote in the primaries. It is conceivable that the 3 federal judges within Texas who are hearing the redistricting case will notice the unfairness to independent presidential candidates. If they notice it, they have the authority to change the petition deadline.

New National Voter Registration Data Shows Very Little Change Compared to October 2010

January 31st, 2012

All 29 states (as well as the District of Columbia) that have registration by party have now released fairly current registration data. The new data in all cases is as of September 2011, October 2011, November 2011, December 2011, or January 2012.

National totals show Democrats with 42.64% of the registered voters in those states, Republicans with 30.79%, independents 24.37%, and minor parties at 2.19%.

These percentages are very similar to the data from October and November 2010. Those figures showed: Democrats 42.98%, Republicans 30.58%, independents 24.27%, and minor parties at 2.17%.

On December 22, 2011, USA Today published a story that claimed that recent registration data shows that voters are “leaving the major parties in droves”, but that article did not provide any data. The report seems to be untrue. The February 1, 2012 printed Ballot Access News will include the registration by state for each party.

Libertarian and Green Parties File Lawsuit Against Oklahoma’s March 1 Petition Deadline for New Parties

January 31st, 2012

On January 31, the Oklahoma Libertarian Party, and the Oklahoma Green Party, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the Oklahoma petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties. The 2011 session of the legislature moved that deadline from May 1 to March 1. The case is called Libertarian Party of Oklahoma et al v Zeriax. The case number is civ12-119. The case was assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Timothy DeGiusti, a Bush Jr. appointee who has never before had a ballot access case. UPDATE: here is the Complaint.

Tacoma News-Tribune Carries Op-Ed Explaining Impact of Top-Two on Voter Choices in November

January 31st, 2012

The January 31 Tacoma News-Tribune has this op-ed by John S. Mills, explaining that the Washington state top-two system has given voters greatly restricted choice in Washington state general elections. Mills focuses on the disappearance of minor party candidates from the November ballot.

Although his op-ed does not say so, minor party or independent candidates appeared on the November ballot in Washington state for Congress, or statewide office, or both, in all elections from statehood in 1890 through 2006. But when Washington switched to the top-two system, minor parties ceased appearing on the November ballot, except for President (top-two systems never apply to presidential elections), and except for a handful of legislative races in which only one major party member ran. Thanks to Will Baker for the link.

Kentucky Presidential Primary Filing Closes

January 31st, 2012

On January 31, the Kentucky presidential primary ballots were set. The Republican ballot will list Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and uncommitted. The Democratic ballot will list President Obama and uncommitted.

Presidential candidates get on Kentucky primary ballots by presenting evidence that they are on the ballot in at least 20 other states, and by paying a filing fee of $1,000. The Kentucky primary is May 22.

U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Hears Closing Arguments in Texas Districting Case

January 31st, 2012

This story describes the hearing held on January 31 in Washington, D.C., in the case over whether the Texas legislature’s redistricting plan for U.S. House and state legislature violate the Voting Rights Act.

Kentucky State Court Postpones Primary Filing for Legislative Candidates due to Redistricting Uncertainty

January 31st, 2012

According to this story, a state court in Kentucky has postponed the filing deadline for legislative candidates running in major party primaries, for a week. This is because the district boundaries are under court challenge. The article also says that lawsuits over districting are occurring currently in 25 states.

Eleventh Circuit Upholds Florida Initiative On Redistricting

January 31st, 2012

On January 31, the Eleventh Circuit upheld Florida’s new initiative that says when U.S. House districts are drawn, the legislature must not favor or disfavor any political party or any incumbent. Here is the 32-page decision, Brown v Florida House of Representatives, 11-14554.

The Florida initiative had been challenged by Democratic U.S. House member Corrine Brown, and Republican U.S. House member Mario Diaz-Balart. The U.S. District Court had also upheld the initiative. The two members of Congress had argued that Article One of the U.S. Constitution requires that only legislatures pass laws concerning congressional elections. But the Eleventh Circuit said that “legislature” within Article One includes the initiative process, because Florida’s constitution itself contemplates that the voters exercise legislative powers when they use the initiative. In a sense, the voters become the legislature. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link. UPDATE: see this news story about the decision.

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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.