On February 18, the Vermont House passed S117, the bill to move the primary from September to August. Unfortunately the House also amended the bill to move the petition deadline for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, from September, to the second Thursday after the first Monday in June. In 2010, that would be June 17.
S117 passed the Senate last year, so now the bill returns to the Senate. The date change is certainly unconstitutional as to presidential independent petitions, and almost certainly unconstitutional for candidates for other office as well. The ostensible change, from September to June, is to prevent “sore losers”. However, if the only state interest is to outlaw “sore losers”, the sensible approach is not to move the deadline ahead three months, but to simply say that someone who runs in a primary and loses is not eligible to be on the general election ballot by petition.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Anderson v Celebrezze in 1983 that independent presidential candidate petition deadlines in the first half of the year are unconstitutional. Except for an oddly deviant decision from Texas in 2004 (Nader v Connor), no state has won declaratory judgment for any independent presidential petition deadline that is earlier than July 15, since before 1983.
For office other than president, courts have ruled that independent petition deadlines cannot be earlier than primary day. Such decisions have been won in Alabama, Alaska, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina.
Separate is still NOT equal.
Brown v. Bd of Ed 1954 — NOT brought up in Williams v. Rhodes 1968 and ALL later ballot access cases — due to MORON lawyers.
As one of THE THIRTY Independent Candidates running for the Vermont Senate along with Dennis Steele for Governor and Pete Garritano for Lt. Governor, I take it as a compliment that the Democratrepublican legislature are scared enough to move our petition time.
They can direct nonprofits such as UVM and NOFA to bar us from public debates or even speaking, but they cannot silence the grassroots voice of the people.
Why are they so scared of Vermont’s people anyway? Could it be the about the invented budget crisis, as the Legislature continue the corporate giveaways (a billion dollars a year documented by UVM) but slash programs and social spending, hurting the most vulnerable?
You’re the people, you decide.
Under a Top 2 Open Primary, all candidates have the same filing deadline regardless whether they are party affiliated or independents.
In Nebraska, the filing deadline for non-incumbents is a week after that for incumbents, but that of course is not based on party status, since Nebraska legislative elections are non-partisan.