New Iran Election Law May Help Produce an Honest Vote Count

January 31st, 2013

See this story about Iran’s new election law. The law transfers authority for overseeing vote counting to a Central Executive Election Board composed of eleven members. The intent is to make it more likely that the vote count will be accurate and honest.



Maine Will Convert all Americans Elect Registrants to Independent Voters

January 31st, 2013

See this this story about the legal status of Americans Elect in Maine. Soon, the Maine Secretary of State will be notifying all Americans Elect registrants that their party did not retain its spot on the ballot. These voters will be given a chance to re-register, but those who don’t respond will automatically be converted to independent voters. Americans Elect only had 58 registered members as of November 2012.

In Maine, a qualified party goes off the ballot if a general election is held and fewer than 10,000 registered members of the party vote. Because Americans Elect had so few registrants, it was literally impossible for it to retain its spot on the ballot. In effect, Maine requires a party to have approximately 13,000 to 15,000 registrants to remain on the ballot. If a party did have that many registrants, it is extremely likely that 10,000 of them would turn out to vote in a presidential or a gubernatorial election, so a party can remain ballot-qualified in Maine indefinitely even if it never runs any candidates.

Meanwhile, Eliot Cutler, who was on the board of Americans Elect, has hinted that he will again be an independent candidate for Governor of Maine. See this story about the 2014 gubernatorial election.

Utah Bill Advances, Would Preserve Ability of Voters to Join a Party on Primary Day

January 31st, 2013

Current Utah law lets voters join a party on primary day. However, current Utah law says that effective July 1, 2013, that policy ends, and the only voters who can vote in a closed primary after July 1, 2013 will be voters who had joined that party at least a month before the primary.

But on January 28, the House Government Operations Committee passed HB 262, which keeps the current policy in place indefinitely. In other words, assuming the bill passes, the policy that lets voters register into a party on primary day will continue to exist.

Utah has four qualified parties (Constitution, Democratic, Libertarian, and Republican). Each party decides for itself which voters may vote in its primaries. Currently, only the Republican Party requires its primary voters to be members of the party, so the bill only affects Republican primaries. Thanks to Nancy Hanks for this news.

California Small Claims Court Takes Debates Exclusion Case Seriously; Sets Another Hearing

January 31st, 2013

On January 30, a small claims court in Los Angeles County heard arguments in the case called Patel v Associated Students. Graduate student Ankur Patel is compelled to be a member of the student body association at Cal State Northridge. Patel is suing for a return of his dues because the student association sponsored a debate in May 2012 for four candidates running for Congress in the 30th district. There were seven candidates on the June 2012 ballot for that seat. The Association refused to invite all seven candidates, on the grounds that it only wanted to hear from the four candidates it believed had a realistic chance of placing first or second.

Patel is a member of the Green Party, and one of the excluded candidates was Mike Powelson, the only Green Party member running.

The judge seemed interested in the case, and extended the normal time for a hearing of this nature. Finally he said he wants more time to think about the case, and set a new hearing for March 26.

Free On-Line Book Now Available on Local Ballot Initiatives

January 31st, 2013

The Lucy Burns Institute recently published a book, “Local Ballot Initiatives”, and the book is now free on-line. Here is the link. The book reveals that although only slightly fewer than half the states have initiatives for state laws, 48 state states have at least one municipality or other kind of local government that has its own initiative for local laws. Thanks to Leslie Graves for the link.

California Libertarians Spend Day in Sacramento, Lobbying Against Bill that Would Create More One-Candidate Elections

January 31st, 2013

On January 30, a group of California Libertarian Party activists spent the day in the State Capitol in Sacramento, urging the defeat of AB 141. The group, organized by Beau Cain, was able to meet with legislative staffers for six California Assemblymembers.

AB 141 would decrease voter choice in November for Congress and state legislative races. Current law requires that the top-two vote-getters be placed on the November ballot. AB 141 would shrink that down to just one candidate, in the races in which only one candidate files in the primary but one or multiple write-in candidates file in June for the same office. AB 141 would prevent any of the write-in candidates from being placed on the November ballot, even if they did come in second, unless they got approximately 3,000 to 4,000 write-ins (if running for U.S. House or State Senate), or approximately 1,500 to 2,000 (if running for Assembly).

Ohio Secretary of State Says Four Minor Parties are on Ballot for 2013

January 31st, 2013

On January 31, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted issued a directive stating that the Constitution, Green, Libertarian, and Socialist Parties are still on the ballot in Ohio, for calendar year 2013. There aren’t many partisan elections in Ohio in 2013, but a few cities have partisan elections. Also it is always possible that the state will have special U.S. House or state legislative elections in 2013, should a vacancy arise.

The directive does not mention Americans Elect, so it is effectively off the ballot. Thanks to Mark Brown for this news.

U.S. District Court in Illinois Hears Testimony in Special Election Ballot Access Case

January 30th, 2013

On January 30, a U.S. District Court in Chicago heard testimony in Jones v McGuffage, a challenge to Illinois law that requires the U.S. House nominees of unqualified parties, and independent candidates, to obtain 15,682 valid signatures from the U.S. House 2nd district, to be on the ballot in the April 2013 special election. The signatures must all be gathered in 62 days, and are due February 2.

The two candidates involved in the lawsuit are LeAlan Jones, Green Party nominee, and Marcus Lewis, an independent who ran in the same district in 2012 and polled 13.44% of the vote. Lewis only needed 5,000 signatures to get on the ballot in the 2012 election.

Because it is mid-winter and because at least three college campuses in the district have excluded petitioners, and also because there are so many Democratic and Republican candidates in the same election, petitioning for Jones and Lewis has been very difficult. Democrats running in the special primary each needed about 1,500 signatures, and Republicans each needed about 350 signatures. With so many candidates, and with the law forbidding anyone from circulating for more than one candidate, and another law that only lets voters sign for one candidate, neither Jones nor Lewis has obtained as many as 1,000 signatures so far. Seventeen Democrats and five Republicans petitioned for the primary ballots in this special election.

Washington State Bill to Repeal National Popular Vote and Provide that Each U.S. House District Chooses its Own Presidential Elector

January 30th, 2013

Five Washington state representatives have introduced HB 1091, which repeals Washington state’s participation on the National Popular Vote pact, and provides that each U.S. House district choose its own presidential elector. The five sponsors are: Matt Shea (R-Spokane Valley), Jason Overstreet (R-Blaine), David Taylor (R-Moxee), Cary Condotta (R-East Wenatchee), and Drew MacEwen (R-Union). Thanks to Christopher Roberts for this news.

Montana Bills to Increase Campaign Donation Limits

January 30th, 2013

The Montana legislature is considering two bills to increase contribution limits to candidates for state office. They are HB 229 and HB 263. See this story for more details. The existing limits are so low, they were enjoined in a U.S. District Court last year, although the state is appealing. Thanks to Mike Fellows for the link.

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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!

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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]

    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]

    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.