On September 9, independent U.S. Senate candidate Laurie Dobson filed a federal lawsuit against the Maine Secretary of State. Dobson v Dunlap, 1:08cv-00292. Dobson collected over 5,000 valid signatures this year to be an independent candidate, and only 4,000 are required. Maine, like several other New England states, requires petitioning candidates to first submit signatures to town clerks, and then collect the signatures and turn them in to the Secretary of State. Some of the Maine town clerks refused to verify Dobson’s signatures in time for her to take them to the Secretary of State. The lawsuit argues that the candidate should not be punished for the tardiness of the town clerks.
This is the third federal ballot access case filed in Maine this year. The first, by another independent U.S. Senate candidate, Herb Hoffman, is still not over, since Hoffman has filed a petition for rehearing in U.S. District Court. The second ballot access case was filed last week by Bob Barr, and also concerns the interplay between deadlines for submission to town clerks and the separate deadline for getting signatures to the Secretary of State. UPDATE: the Herb Hoffman case is over; on September 9 his request for reconsideration was denied.
Letter to the editor
Nashua Telegraph.com
I have participated in Maine elections and candidate petition efforts on numerous occasions over the last 27 years. In every case, the clerks of the various cities and towns have accepted signatures for verification up to just a few hours before the final state deadline. They graciously and happily checked the signatures which were then filed by the 5pm deadline in Augusta.
This year, the Secretary of State, Matthew Dunlap, changed the normal process, unilaterally, without any change in law and without any valid reason. This decision was a blantantly illegal, political attack on Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party, and the voters of the State of Maine by the Maine Secretary of State. This was an electoral “coup” by the unelected Secretary of State. It overturns the law, legal precedent, and past ballot access history of the State of Maine. His actions cannot be allowed to stand.
The notification from Dunlap’s office to city and town clerks was an illegal change in standard electoral practice. What change in law and authority from the Maine State Legislature allowed such a change in the middle of the process? There was none. This was a deliberate and desperate effort to keep Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party off the Maine ballot.
Changing the historically established and often used rules in the middle of the process is blatantly illegal. If Secretary Dunlap’s discriminatory action is allowed to stand, then Maine becomes a state where the rule of law and precedent has no meaning, elections are neither free nor fair, and government is illegitimate.
This action is on a par with the election stealing that occured during the reign of John Martin, when close elections were stolen in the dead of night by ballot box stuffing in the Statehouse prior to a recount.
This action shames the name of the great state of Maine.
I blame John Knutson and the state Democratic Party and its attack on Herb Hoffman.