Nebraska State Senator William P. Avery (D-Lincoln) has introduced LB 399. It eliminates the county distribution requirement for statewide non-presidential independent petitions. In 2007 the legislature had changed the law for statewide independent candidates (for office other than President), by saying the petition must be signed by at least 50 voters from each of one-third of the 93 counties.
Since the 2007 change, no statewide non-presidential independent has managed to qualify for the ballot. To get at least 50 signatures from each of 31 counties means having to collect signatures from counties in which fewer than 4,000 votes were cast in the last presidential election. A large majority of Nebraska counties have very small populations.
The bill instead requires at least 750 signatures from each of the three U.S. House districts. The constitutionality of the existing law is being challenged in U.S. District Court in Citizens in Charge v Gale, 4:09-cv-3255. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1969 that county distribution requirements for statewide petitions are unconstitutional. Nebraska once had a county distribution requirement for petitions to recognize new parties, but that law, which only required signatures from 19 counties, was declared unconstitutional in 1984 in Libertarian Party of Nebraska v Beermann.
I thought Nebraska’s unicameral legislature was non-partisan? The bill’s sponsor is identified as being a Democrat.
Nebraska does use non-partisan elections for its State Senate. However, Nebraska has registration by party, and State Senators are generally members of parties, and they are not shy about letting the public know which party they are a member of.
At least US House districts within a state have to be of pretty equal population — so there could be less unfairness in that sense than under the current county-level scheme, as Richard describes.
OTOH — let’s do the math:
50 signatures/county x (1/3 of 93 counties) = 1,530
750 signatures/US House district x 3 = 2,250
Hmmm. . . . . . . .
(Is there some larger total figure that is also required?)
The petition needs 4,000 signatures total.
Moore v. Ogilvie, 394 U.S. 814 (1969) (equal regional treatment of electors who sign petitions) — one of the very few SCOTUS cases with some Democracy.
Attack the NE morons and bankrupt them as examples — 28 U.S.C. 1331 amd 1343.
#3 ALL population stats are instantly obsolete – with 10-15 percent of folks moving around each year plus unequal birth and death and legal foreign immigrant rates.
i.e. the courts are brain dead about population stuff — regarding ONLY 14th Amdt, Sec. 2 and U.S.A. direct taxes, Art. I, Sec. 9.