On November 19, the Eleventh Circuit issued an opinion in Libertarian Party of Alabama v Merrill, 20-13356. It upholds Alabama’s discriminatory policy for access to the list of registered voters. The 28-page opinion will not be published. The decision is by Judge Robert Luck, a Trump appointee. It is also signed by Judge Jill Pryor, an Obama appointee; and Judge Andrew Brasher, a Trump appointee.
Alabama gives a free list of the registered voters to the qualified parties, and to state legislators, and to the state administrative office of courts, and election officials of other states. But it charges unqualified parties $35,913 for the list.
In 1970 a 3-judge U.S. District Court in New York ruled that if the state gives a list of the registered voters free to qualified parties, it must also give it to parties that are petitioning to get on the ballot. The U.S. Supreme Court summarily affirmed this decision, 400 U.S. 806. The new Eleventh Circuit decision says this precedent doesn’t control this case, because in New York the list was given to parties that, while not qualified, “had succeeded in gaining a position on the ballot.” In the New York case, the plaintiffs Socialist Workers Party, and Socialist Labor Party, sued in early 1970 to help them with their 1970 petition. It is true that they had appeared on the New York ballot in 1968 and previous years, but that does not differentiate that case from the Alabama case. The Libertarian Party has also gained a position on the Alabama in the past, which the decision admits.
The decision says if the state had to give the Libertarian Party the list, an employee of the Secretary of State “would have to export the list from a program called PowerProfile; import the data into Microsoft Access; export the data from Access to a text file; and then email the list to the party requesting it. This process takes about fifty minutes and, because of the demands of processing this very large file, prevents the employee’s computer from doing other tasks.”
The decision does not mention any of the other five precedents from other courts that ruled that if the state gives a free list of the registered voters to the qualified parties, it must give the list free to groups that are petitioning.
The decision admits on page three that, “the voter list is an important tool for effectively locating voters, petitioning for ballot access, and campaigning for elected office.” The decision does not mention that the Libertarian Party is currently petitioning for 2022 in Alabama. However, that fact is not in the record, because this case was filed before the party decided to launch its statewide 2022 petition.
Good. We need to Unite as REPUBLICANS for TRUMP!!!
I find it hard to believe that this powerprofile software can’t export directly to a .csv file. And if it’s really taking 50 minutes for a computer to export a file from two programs they’re working with systems from more than 8 years ago. Tens of millions of records should be able to be exported in about twenty minutes from both programs tops.
More lying government scumbags.
“The 28-page opinion will not be published.”
Why is that?
50 minutes would obviously bankrupt the state, especially since they already do it for Democrats and Republicans.
NOOO publish — akin to NOT publishing death camp data.
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Any appeal to SCOTUS ??? —
to E-N-D the perversion of the 14-1 Amdt EP cl in election related stuff A to Z.
Federal judges commonly decide whether their decisions should be published in the Federal Reporter or the Federal Supplement. Those are books, published by a private company since the 19th century, in which some federal court decisions are printed. Then, it is far easier to use them as precedents for future cases on the same subject. Whenever anyone sees an attorney on TV, either in an ad or a news story, chances are the attorney is standing in front of rows and rows of identical-looking books, taking up oodles of book shelves. Those are the books we are talking about. I suppose this panel of judges didn’t feel very proud of their work so they don’t want it published.
Appeal to SCOTUS will b a waste of time since they haven’t taken an appeal from a turd party in over 30 years.
And in other good news KYLE RITTENHOUSE IS OFFICIALLY INNOCENT! !!
Showing maximum disrespect to turd parties. I love that We don’t need turd parties or turd worlders in our great Homeland.
The Alabama Libertarian Party is free to ask for a rehearing before all the full-time judges of the Eleventh Circuit.
Is that the real Paul on 11/19/21 11:57 AM, as in the one who used to post here and at IPR frequently? If so, I thpught he dropped out of politics and no longer cared about of followed politics.
If they really can’t take up 50 minutes of computer time to do this, couldn’t they just hook up another computer, or have the party or group who wants the voter file bring their own computer to the election office and use that computer to download the information?
Like Andy, Paul is a common name, and there could easily be more than one Paul who might comment here. If that’s the case, not being the same Paul you’re obsessed with wouldn’t make him any less real, just as not being you doesn’t make every other Andy any less real than you.
Modern technology should make it very easy for all judges opinions to be published in pdf form, and available on line.
Would that take 50 minutes?
Yes, there are many people named Paul, but there is only one Paul who followed this site and IPR for many years. Junkies have a hard time breaking their addictions.
It sounds like you are the one with an addiction to talking about this person you used to know (or possibly your imaginary friend).
Wow, who knew that Alabama elections employees were worth $43K/hr! They should ask for raises!
At that rate they must be worth their weight in gold.
OLDE dial-up systems took some time to transfer any large data.
Still PRIMITIVE systems in AL ???
We’re still working on getting electricity, running water and indoor plumbing in many parts of the state.
Meanwhile, functional states provide the list for free to whomever asks for it, or even make it publicly available online.
Did somebody say “functional” ?
We know thar this person, Paul, has done a lot of trolling here. This is the only reason his name comes up.
You don’t know anything, you just continuously assert it. It’s more likely that you have.
Demo Rep is one to talk. Look at his home, Detroit.
All I want for Xmas is that Jake Paul merch….
https://youtu.be/LvYbhJ6pryA
We know Paul has done lots of trolling here and at IPR. I caught him doing it more than once. Remember the poster Humongous Fungus? Go through the archive here. That was Paul. He has been a bunch of other characters here and at IPR.
I do not think he is the only person who has trolled here, but he is one of them.
Blind partisanship is a characteristic of fascists, even if it includes two parties. All ballot access laws, including provisions for registering voters to use the state monopoly ballot, are designed to entrench in perpetuity two particular parties dominant in the 19th century.
I no longer work in politics, care about it, or read/write/discuss it all the time. I read about it once in as while and comment on very rare occasions. Humongous fungus and a few names were not trolling. They were so a few people would not bother me with ad hominem attacks, phone calls, etc.
Andy can keep getting together with trolls and nutjobs and accuse me of trolling all the time. I don’t care. I see it every time I do visit, so it’s safe to assume they do it much more often than that. Whatever, keep talking about me while I’m not here.
This decision, which I expected, will bankrupt the state party yet again. It happened after a prior lawsuit as well and basically shut it down for a few years. This time they really ran up the score on fees to charge the party after a loss. Yet another nail in the coffin of my political involvement. I’m pretty damn cynical about it all now. But y’all have fun. Off to the real world.
https://nypost.com/2021/11/20/portland-protesters-cops-clash-after-rittenhouse-verdict/
Portland RIOT after R verdict in WI.
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How soon before nonstop riots about ANY public stuff – legis / exec / judic ???