California State Appeals Court Sets Oral Argument in Case Against Two Aspects of “Top-Two”

The California State Court of Appeals will hold oral arguments in Field v Bowen in San Francisco on September 12 at 9 a.m. This is one of the two cases that challenges two particular details of the Proposition 14 “top-two” system: (1) that some candidates may show a party label on the ballot and others may not; (2) that write-in space is printed on general election ballots but write-ins for Congress and state office may never be counted.

There is a similar lawsuit, with different plaintiffs, in federal court as well. That case is called Chamness v Bowen. That case has an oral argument on August 22 in Los Angeles.

North Carolina Ballot Access Bill Advances

On July 26, North Carolina HB 32 passed the Senate Rules Committee. This is the bill that cuts the number of signatures for minor parties, and statewide independent candidates, from 85,379 signatures to approximately 17,000. The bill now goes to the Senate floor, but probably there isn’t time to get a Senate vote until early next year.

New Hampshire Libertarian Party Will Begin to Circulate the Difficult Party Petition

For only the second time, the New Hampshire Libertarian Party will attempt to complete the difficult party petition process in New Hampshire. It requires 13,698 signatures, but if completed, then the party is free to nominate by convention for any partisan office in the state without further petitioning. Also that method will enable the party to have its own party column on the November 2012 ballot.

The only time the Libertarian Party did the party petition was in 2000, and that year the party elected a state legislator. The alternative to the party petition is to do separate candidate petitions, which require 3,000 signatures for statewide office, coupled with a distribution requirement (there must be 1,500 signatures from each of the two U.S. House districts). In 2004 the party’s attempt to do the statewide candidate petition failed because one of the two districts lacked 1,500 signatures. Petitioning in New Hampshire is difficult because only one signature is permitted on each sheet of paper.

South Carolina Republicans Win Opportunity to Present Evidence Against Open Primary

On July 18, a U.S. District Court Judge in South Carolina issued an 8-page Opinion in Greenville County Republican Party v State, 6:10-cv-1407, the case in which the South Carolina Republican Party argues that the Constitution protects its ability to limit its primaries to party members. The opinion gives both sides the chance to conduct discovery and present evidence, on the following questions: (1) is the Republican Party of either Greenville County, or the state party itself, really likely to hold closed primaries if either wins the case; (2) whether it is true or not that the state law barring a party from nominating by primary unless three-fourths of all delegates at a party convention (whether they are present at the moment to vote on the question) vote in favor of using a convention is too restrictive; (3) whether it is true or not that non-Republicans have been voting in Republican primaries; (4) what the results would be if the Republican Party were permitted to limit its primaries to party members.

Back on March 30, the same judge had issued an opinion in which the Republican Party seemed to have lost the case, although that opinion had been somewhat internally contradictory.