On June 16, Washington, D.C. city councilmember Mary M. Cheh introduced a bill to let D.C. residents register to vote at the polls on election day. The bill won’t be assigned a number for several days.
The bill also authorizes the D.C. Board of Elections to impose “reasonable” filing fees on candidates for public office, and says the money will be used for election administration. If this part of the bill passes, it would be unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court said in both Bullock v Carter, and Lubin v Panish, that mandatory filing fees can only be imposed for the purpose of keeping ballots uncrowded. Since D.C. doesn’t have crowded ballots, and since the proposed fees would be in addition to rather severe petition requirements that already serve to keep the ballot uncrowded, the fees would not withstand court challenge. Also the bill doesn’t have any bypass for candidates who can’t afford the fees, and that is also unconstitutional.
How about collecting all zillion election law opinions about election law by the Supremes (or at least summaries) and putting them on ONE website for the special MORONS in government to look at — who have a special power to keep introducing UNCONSTITUTIONAL bills and keep passing UNCONSTITUTIONAL laws (that keep the courts and armies of election law lawyers busy) ???