Ballot Access News

Politico has this story, that on the last day, over 100 people signed up to be declared write-in candidates for U.S. Senate in Alaska.  The intent is to make the list of declared write-in candidates so long that the list supposedly won’t be useful to Lisa Murkowski.  However, if the list if alphabetized, it will still be useful.

No one with a surname of  “M” and a first name of “Lisa” filed.  Here is the list.  Thanks to Rick Hasen for that link.

This idea spread on a talk show.  It is somewhat similar to an attempt in California in 2003 to encourage people to file for the ballot in the special gubernatorial recall election, by a wealthy individual who was willing to pay the California filing fee.  His motivation was to sabotage the recall, and the recall did end up with a ballot with 135 candidates listed.

On October 28, the Nevada Supreme Court issued a 6-page opinion in Fasano v Ashjian, 56040, holding the appeal moot.  The case had been filed by Tim Fasano, Independent American Party nominee for U.S. Senate, to remove Scott Ashjian from the November ballot as the Tea Party nominee for U.S. Senate.  The lower court had kept Ashjian on the ballot, and the Nevada Supreme Court said Fasano’s appeal cannot prevail because he waited too long to file his appeal.  Thanks to Glenn Brown for this news.

Fasano had pointed out that Ashjian had signed a declaration of candidacy saying he was registered in the Tea Party, when in fact he did not change his registration from “Republican” to “Tea” for several hours afterwards.  The lower court had ruled in favor of Ashjian by finding that a de minimus violation.

This is the second case in which the Nevada Supreme Court had ruled against attempts to get Ashjian off the ballot.  The other case, which was potentially very bad for ballot access, had been filed by Citizen Outreach, a conservative group, and had argued that the Secretary of State had erroneously put the Tea Party on the ballot and that new parties need two separate petitions, one signed by 250 voters due early in the year, and then a separate petition signed by over 9,000 voters due in the late spring.

On October 28, the Field Poll released a gubernatorial poll for California.  The poll did not mention all 6 candidates on the ballot.  It merely asked respondents if they favor the Democratic nominee, the Republican nominee, or a minor party nominee.  5% of respondents said they favor a minor party nominee and 7% are undecided.  The four California minor party gubernatorial nominees are debating each other on October 28 on the campus of California State University, Sacramento, at 1 p.m.  The two major party nominees were invited but are not expected to attend.