Elliot Traiman, age 61, of Long Beach, New York, died unexpectedly on July 7. He was co-Treasurer of the Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE). He had been ill but it was a shock that he died.
Elliot Traiman and his partner Alice Kelsey have been associated with the COFOE board since the very beginning of COFOE, in 1985. COFOE gets all its revenue from readers of Ballot Access News. COFOE uses that money to help fund constitutional ballot access lawsuits, especially for independent candidates. Two recent cases that COFOE helped finance are the case against the number of signatures needed for independents for statewide office in Maryland, and the number of signatures needed for independent candidates in Alabama special congressional elections. The Maryland case has been won and the law has been improved. The Alabama case won in U.S. District Court and the state is appealing to the Eleventh Circuit.
Sad to hear. I knew Elliot indirectly when I was a member of the Socialist Party USA, where I served on the National Committee with Alice Kelsey. My sense is that we were often on different sides of many political issues in the party, but I did appreciate his knowledge of ballot access questions.
Thank you very much to Jay Butterman, who contributed $100 to COFOE in memory of Elliot.
Condolences to his partner and to COFOE.