On October 8, U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith, a Bush, Jr. appointee, issued an injunction against a law that says voters may only sign one nominating petition for each office. The effect of the ruling is to place Hipolito Fontes on the non-partisan ballot for Mayor of Central Falls, Rhode Island. The election is November 3, 2009.
Central Falls says candidates for Mayor need 200 signatures, and voters may only sign for one candidate. When a voter signs two petitions for the same office, that signature counts for the candidate who submitted the petition first. The case is Fontes v City of Central Falls, 09-437. Here is the order.
The opinion says the law “is not necessary to further the government’s state interests in reducing ballot clutter or in demonstrating a candidate’s support in the community…Defendants have failed to offer any evidence demonstrating how the first to file rule eliminates chaos and clutter in elections.”
Central Falls is in Rhode Island.
Thanks! I added the state name to the post.
Got problems with democracy ??????
The solution is MORE DEMOCRACY!
Certainly a novel argument that voters who provided the 1500 extra signatures collected by the mayor were “disenfranchised”.
Specifically, the injunction was against a first to file law. Central Falls permits petitions to be submitted on a rolling basis in which they are time-stamped as they are submitted.
One more reason NOT to have local regimes have any discretion type stuff — one of the many lessons that should have been learned from the Bush v Gore EVIL mess in FL in 2000.
UNIFORM U.S.A. / State election laws.