On April 11, the Ninth Circuit heard De La Fuente v Wyman, 18-35208, in Seattle. Here is a link to the video, which lasts 48 minutes. Washington has one of the nation’s oddest
ballot access procedures. The state requires 1,000 valid signatures. They can only be collected at locations that have been named in a newspaper notice. The candidate must place the notice at least ten days before he or she starts to petition.
The state allows petitioning at multiple locations, but each location must collect at least 100 valid signatures, or none of the signatures count. The state law refers to this process as an assemblage of electors, but that is a very misleading phrase, because what really happens is a petitioning process, not a meeting.
De La Fuente was kept off the ballot in November 2016 because by the time he started petitioning, it was less than ten days before the deadline, so there was no possibility of running a newspaper notice at least ten days before starting to petition. He challenged the requirement that the notice be placed at least ten days before the election. Although he failed to get injunctive relief, after the election the U.S. District Court declared the newspaper notice to be unconstitutional, because it didn’t serve any state interest. The state then appealed to the Ninth Circuit. The three judges are William Fletcher, Consuelo Callahan, and Morgan Christen. The very last question in the hearing was by Judge Callahan. She asked if a single newspaper notice could say that the petitioners are going to be at a particular location, but on many particular dates in the future. The attorney for the state said that is permitted.
What is odd is that Washington requires conventions that are unconventional.
Do you want to come to a convention?
Is it like Comic-con?
Sort of. There is this car dealer from San Diego whose name is Rocky …
Like Sylvester Stallone or Bullwinkle?
No.
Do I need a costume? will there be an open bar? Viva Las Vegas!
Umm… just take this pen and sign your name to this convention roster.
If Washington used Top 2 for presidential elections there wouldn”t be these problems.
Law written by a HACK working for an olde newspaper lobby ???
Equal nom pets/ filing fees.
@DR,
How can the American Delta party make nominations, if not by holding a convention?
The problem in Washington is that presidential elections are structured based on party nominations. If Top 2 were implemented, elector candidates could choose their own party designation.
“Bernie Bro Dem”
“MAGA Republican”
INDIVIDUALS ARE NOMINATED.
NO party hack caucuses, primaries and conventions.
Nom pets / filing fees.
“How can the American Delta party make nominations, if not by holding a convention?”
They don’t have to have a nominating convention in Washington State. They can have a nominating convention in any state or in DC, or Puerto Rico, or wherever they want to have it. They then have to get on the ballot in various states such as Washington State and others. The problem is that Washington State does not give them a way to petition to be on the ballot except by having people pretend to be signing a convention roster to decide who a national party nominates for a national office, which is absurd.
Top Two Only would only make this worse by having people who may or may not have any affiliation with a party whose ballot access they are claiming, and may or may not be the person that people in that party would want as their candidate, in a primary where people of any and all parties and none appear on a ballot together. Since it can’t actually elect anyone, and of secondary importance because it is held at a time of year before most voters pay attention, most voters simply ignore this absurd process and wait to see who emerges as their choices in the November election.
It would be completely absurd to apply this already absurd process to a national election. Some states would end up with two Republicans, some with two Democrats, and the Democratic and Republican candidates for president would be different in different states. The election would be thrown into the House every time. It would completely violate the process whereby a presidential candidate represents a slate of electors pledged to that candidate. Virtually nobody except a Democrat or Republican would ever even make it on the presidential ballot in any state in an actual election – that is, one which can actually elect someone rather than just advance them to the next round. Nothing could be more ridiculous or repugnant.
What Washington State should actually do is get rid of top two only for all offices, not extend it to president. It should also make it possible to do ballot access through a normal petition like other states have, not a pretend convention, and lower retention requirements so already existing third parties don’t have to repeatedly requalify.
Given the unpredictable nature of petition signature gathering, it is often hard to know what locations signature gatherers will be at each day, much less how many signatures they will get at each location.