Federal courts have ruled in the past that if ballot access is impossible, or virtually impossible, and a party or a candidate who wants to be on the ballot sues, and shows evidence of a modicum of support, then the court should put that party or candidate on the ballot even if it submits few if any signatures or does no other substantial work to qualify.
U.S. Supreme Court examples: (1) Eugene McCarthy was put on the Texas ballot as an independent presidential candidate in 1976 even though he did not submit any signatures. McCarthy v Briscoe, 429 US 1317 (1976); (2) the National Democratic Party of Alabama (an African-American Party not affiliated with the Democratic Party) was put on the ballot for county office in Hadnott v Amos, 394 US 358 (1969); (3) an independent US Senate candidate, Clifton Whitley, was put on the ballot by a 3-judge US District Court Judge in Mississippi in 1966, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that decision with a full opinion, Allan v State Board of Elections, 393 U.S. 544 (1969); (4) several minor parties were put on the Michigan ballot in 1976 by a 3-judge U.S. District Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court summarily affirmed that decision, 430 US 924 (1977). The lower court decision cite is 419 F.Supp.1002 (e.d. 1976).
US Court of Appeals examples: (1) the Fifth Circuit put McCarthy on in Florida in 1976 even though he didn’t petition. McCarthy v Askew, 540 F 2d 1254 (back then, Florida was in the Fifth Circuit because the Eleventh Circuit didn’t exist); (2) the Sixth Circuit put a Communist Party candidate on the Michigan ballot for State Board of Education. Goldman-Frankie v Austin, 727 F.2d 603 (1984); (3) the Ninth Circuit put the Populist Party on the Idaho ballot in 1984 even though it only collected fewer than 300 signatures. Populist Party v Evans, not reported, 84-4108.
US District Court examples: (1) Tennessee 2012, the Green and Constitution Parties were put on the ballot, Green Party of Tn. v Hargett, 882 F.Supp.2d 959 (m.d.); (2) Kansas 1982, the Libertarian Party was put on, Reagan v State of Kansas, unreported, 82-4083; (3) Michigan 1980, Communist Party presidential nominee Gus Hall was put in the ballot, Hall v Austin, 495 F.Supp.782 (e.d.); (4) Ohio 2014, four minor parties were put on the ballot, Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, order of January 7, 2014 not reported, s.d., 2:13cv-953; (5) Ohio 1970, Socialist Labor Party put on ballot, Socialist Labor Party v Rhodes, 318 F.Supp. 1262 (s.d.); (6) Michigan 1988, Lenora Fulani put on the ballot as an independent for president, not reported, e.d., 88cv-72331; (7) Delaware 1976, Eugene McCarthy put on ballot, 421 F.Supp.1193.
In 1984 District Court Judge Lee West put the OKLP on the ballot after the state failed to respond to the OKLP’s motion for summary judgement. The suit was filed to challenge the 90 day window but also relied on a rash of bad weather during the 90 days as well as petitioners being run off from public property which was ruled impermissible in another case.
Interesting that the courts ruled it was impermissible to run petition circulators off of public property, and that this was used in favor of a Libertarian Party ballot access lawsuit in 1984, because when I gathered petition signatures for the LP in Oklahoma in 2015, I, and other petition circulators, were run off of public property multiple times by the police, other government officials, and security guards. I managed to capture two of these incidents on video with my cell phone, at great risk to myself (since there have been many instances of police taking cameras and arresting people for filming them while they engage in rights violations), and I presented these videos to both the Libertarian Party of Oklahoma, and the Libertarian National Committee, with the hope that they’d get a lawsuit going, and they never did anything about it.
Paying a fee to the state does not show any “modicum” except the wealth of the candidate or his leverage on the finances of others who are not obligated and may not even be able to vote for the candidate.
Collecting signatures on a petition does NOT show any “modicum” because signing a petition does not obligate and cannot obligate the signator to vote for the candidate.
Modicum is ballot censorship hokum.
Chris, in 1984 the Libertarian Party collected 28,894 signatures on its party petition in Oklahoma, so I didn’t include that example. You are certainly right that it is an instance of a court putting a party on the ballot when it didn’t get enough signatures. But I was just listing examples when the party collected no signatures, or almost none.
14-1 EQUAL ballot access test(s) for ALL INDIVIDUAL candidates —
much too difficult for BAAAADE lawyers and worse HACK legal MORON judges.
D Frank good point. Unfortunately legislative and legal precedent says otherwise but in reality you are correct.
Thank you, Charles. There are ample precedents for precedents being overturned. The stupid is not immutible.
*immutable*
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/19/coronavirus-election-2020-third-party-libertarian-green-trump-biden-193013
2020 ballot access – 3rd parties
Demo Rep, is there a reason why you are posting a link to an article that has its own discussion thread on multiple other threads? Earlier you seemed to indicate you believe everyone here reads every thread, so you don’t have to explain your terms very often since people can just print them out from that one thread for subsequent reference. But if it were true that people here read every thread it wouldn’t make sense for you to post that link repeatedly. On the other hand, if they don’t, wouldn’t it make sense for you to define your terms habitually, and, dare I suggest, actually make an argument for them?
DFR–
https://www.politico.com/news/agenda/2020/04/21/simplest-way-avoid-wisconsin-fiasco-election-day-196625
Crisis write-in ballots ???
It’s too bad demo rep doesn’t have enough of an attention span to reply to questions posed above.