In January 2016, a professional petitioner who wanted to work in Pennsylvania, for presidential primary candidates, filed a lawsuit to overturn the requirement that he must be a Pennsylvania resident in order to circulate such petitions. Benezet v Cortes, m.d., 1:16cv-74.
Pennsylvania already lets out-of-state petitioners work on general election petitions, but says out-of-state circulators can’t work on primary petitions because that would violate the freedom of association of the two major parties. The case is now almost four years old and is still awaiting a decision from U.S. District Court Judge Yvette Kane. She was Secretary of the Commonwealth before she was a federal judge, so she is very familiar with election law.
It would appear that Judge Kane has a conflict of interest.
Absolutely ridiculous and disgusting. American citizens do not give up their free speech rights when they cross a state line. Out of state petition circulator bans are unconstitutional. End of discussion.
Banning outof state petition circulators is also discriminatory, as it is not applied to any other type of work, including political campaign work. There is no ban on out of state campaign managers. There is no ban on out of state get out the vote canvassers. There is no ban on out of state political sign makers. Etc…
If they can ban out of state petition circulators, how about banning out of state news reporters?
A lot of the Democrats and Republicans want to be able to have out of state petition signature gatherers, both paid and unpaid volunteer, because it is difficult to get the signatures to get on the primary ballot.
This is all being done to protect the candidates who are favored by the ruling establishment “machines” in both major parties, as the party “machines” get the signatures for the candidates that the party bosses favor, and they do not help the candidates that the party bosses do not favor, hence the increased need for these candidates to be able to utilize petition signature gatherers from out of state.
Each State since 4 July 1776 has been a sovereign NATION STATE.
DOI last para.
1777 Art ConFed
1783 USA-Brit peace treaty
1787 Const Art VII
States – PLURAL – in all 4 basic documents.
Thus – INTERNAL election stuff – NON-State Citizens/residents – NONE of your biz.
SCOTUS – brain dead about BASIC stuff since 1789.
#1) American citizens have a right to travel, and relocate their residence, throughtout the 50 states and the federal territories.
#2) American citizens do not give up their rights when the cross a state line.
#3) This impacts federal elections, and, in the case of this lawsuit, it specifically impacts presidential elections, so if a state ballot access requirement is so unreasonable that it can keep candidates from qualifying for the ballot, it effects the entire country.
There used to be a ban in Pennsylvania on out of state petition circulators for minor party and independent candidate petitions. That was ruled unconstitutional and thrown out a few years ago. The same should happen with major party primary petitions.
Petitioning should only occur at peaceable assemblies of the people. This would still permit aliens to participate in assisting with the logistics of the assembly.
USA REGIME PREVENTS FOREIGN FOLKS IN USA ELECTIONS.
SAME STATE ANALOGY FOR STATE ELECTIONS.
BASIC NATION-STATE STUFF.
Courts have been brain dead about *** election mechanics *** stuff
— ballot access for candidates/issues, electors-voters, voting, counting votes, etc.
— VERSUS indirect stuff — election related speech, press, assembly, petition.
Thus — the election law chaos since 1962-1968.
Newbees – see the 1959 book — Sources of Our Liberties, ed by Richard L. Perry
[ history of USA Amdts 1-8 ].
American citizens going from one state to another is NOT the same thing as a foreign person. That is absurd.
Furthermore, American citizens do not give up their rights when they cross a state line. There is no prohibition against out of state campaign managers, or out of state campaign consultants, or out of state get out the vote canvassers, or out of state campaign literature or sign printers, or out of state political advertisers, or out of state political reporters. There should be no ban on out of state petition signature gatherers either.
Andy –
Try election intervention as a ***citizen of the world*** in elections in Russia, Iran, etc
Report back if you survive the secret police purge.
Demo Rep, an American citizen who resides in say Maryland, or New York, or anywhere else in the USA, entering Pennsylvania, and asking people to sign a petition to place a candudate on the ballot, is NOT foreign intervention in elections. That is absurd. Our rights as American citizens are supposed to be RECIPROCATED regardless of where we are in the country. Asking somebody to sign a petition is not voting. It is free speech. We do not give up our free speech rights when we enter another state from where we are regarded as being a resident.
@Andy,
Petioning is concomitant to assembling. If you are an alien, you are not a member of the public assembling to petition their government.
Petitioning for ballot access should be replaced by assembling at government election offices. The government could check the ID’s.
States are separate ***NATION-STATES***.
Name of USA/FEDERAL regime = UNITED ***STATES*** OF AMERICA.
1787 CONST [PARTS]
1-10-1 No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation ***
[attempted violation in 1860-1865 by CSA Secess States]
1-10-3 No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, *** enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, ***
IV-2-1 The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.
IV-2-2 A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.
—–
Little VT seceded from NY in 1777- was an independent nation-state regime in 1777-1791 — became a State in USA IN 1791.
Texas was an independent nation-state regime in 1836-1845 — became a State in USA IN 1845-1846.
USA FEDERAL REGIME [IE USA CONGRESS LAWS] created 35 States — 50 – 13 ORIG -VT -TX = 35.
—
TOTAL failure of so-called publik skooools about basic CON LAW stuff in govt/civics classes [in addition to SCOTUS hacks].
Radio-TV-Internet has greatly reduced States as separate Nation-States
— in addition to SCOTUS TOTAL perversions of 1-8 general welfare and inter-State commerce cls.