On September 4, the Maine Libertarian Party and Bob Barr filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, against the August 8 petition deadline for independent presidential petitions. Libertarian Party of Maine v Dunlap, 1:08-cv-288.
Maine has two statutory deadlines, an August 8 deadline for petitions to be turned in to the town clerks, and an August 15 deadline for turning in the verified petitions to the Secretary of State. This year, August 8 is a Friday. Some of the Barr petitions were not submitted to the towns until the following Monday, August 11. Traditionally, the town clerk deadline has not been strictly enforced. Unfortunately, this year, after Herb Hoffman was eliminated from the ballot as an independent candidate by the Maine Supreme Court, the Secretary of State said the deadline must be strictly obeyed. Meanwhile, Herb Hoffman on September 4 asked a U.S. District Court to reconsider its earlier order that said he could not seek help from the federal courts.
Separate is NOT equal.
Brown v. Bd of Ed 1954
NOT brought up by the armies of MORON lawyers in ballot access cases since 1968 — a mere 40 years of useless lawyers.
Every election is NEW and has ZERO to do with any prior election — especially regarding ballot access.
STOP SPAMMING, Demo Rep!
We’ve all seen your rant. Enough.
No one uses “Brown v. Bd of Ed 1954” because it is not germane.
Go to law school. Get a life.
As to the Maine lawsuit, that’s good news. I hope they filed in New Hampshire as well for substitution.
When Barr sues in Texas, the Dems Reps and Sec of State will, of course, point out that having only one candidate on the ballot seems undemocratic. And, of course, McCain and Obama both failed to qualify as write-ins as well, so they would get zero votes there.
But, the Barr attorney can just list all the other write-ins that are available to vote for. The state seems to think this status is enough, and there are plenty to choose from. We wouldn’t want the Dems and Reps crowding the write-in ballot.
we’ll see how the Dems and Repubs like it when we take them off the ballot in Texas
Why didn’t they turn in all of the petitions in on time?
Ballot Access News had an article detailing why they need to turn in on the 8th.
Why didn’t they hire more people to work in Maine?
The person hired to run the Maine drive was paying $.75 – $1.00 a signature on the street while he was being paid $2.50 a signature.
Why did they hire Stavros Mendros, previously convicted of referendum fraud etc to run the drive?
I’ve done an entire drive in Maine BY MYSELF and have succeeded, no problems. 89% validity too.
Hey Gary, why didn’t you do the entire LP drive this year by yourself? You’ve done it and a lot of others before, and it would have scored you a lot of “points” for your other petitioning efforts in the future.
Letter to the Editor in response to Bangor Daily News story on line:
“I have participated in Maine elections and candidate petition efforts on numerous occasions over the last 27 years. In every case, the clerks of the various cities and towns have accepted signatures for verification up to just a few hours before the final state deadline. They graciously and happily checked the signatures which were then filed by the 5pm deadline in Augusta.
This year, the decision and blantantly illegal, political attempt by the Maine Secretary of State to overturn the law and past ballot access history of the State of Maine cannot be allowed to stand. The notification from Dunlap’s office to city and town clerks was an illegal change in standard electoral practice. What change in law and authority from the Maine State Legislature allowed such a change in the middle of the process? There was none. This was a deliberate and desperate effort to keep Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party off the Maine ballot.
Changing the historically established and often used rules in the middle of the process is blatantly illegal. If the Dunlap’s discriminatory action is allowed to stand, then Maine becomes a state where the rule of law and precedent has no meaning, elections are neither free nor fair, and government is illegitimate.
This action is on a par with the election stealing that occured during the reign of John Martin, when close elections were stolen in the dead of night by ballot box stuffing in the Statehouse prior to a recount.
This action shames the name of the great state of Maine.”
I must protest the negative post Stavros Mendros.
He is a great Greek American.
He does a great job on petition drives and is a great athlete.
I have greatly enjoyed our Greco Roman wrestling matches.
He has always helped me because he knows I don’t like to drive.
Ok, I have figured this out and this – ‘Coming Back to the LP’ – is Nick Youngers. Sorry if you didn’t want your cover blown but I had no way to privately send you a message. The multiple parameters fit no one else, so it obviously has to be you.
Not sure where you’ve been for the past 10 years. Did you know that Kay died in 2002?