The Coalition for Free & Open Elections (COFOE) will contribute $2,000 to help pay the costs of filing a cert petition in the U.S. Supreme Court, in the Alabama case over access to the list of registered voters. Alabama gives a free list of the registered voters to qualified parties, and to state legislators, and to jury commissioners, and to the election offices of other states. But it charges over $36,000 if an unqualified party wants the list.
In 1970 a 3-judge U.S. District Court in New York ruled that if the state gives a free list of the registered voters to the qualified parties, it must give the list to unqualified parties that are petitioning. Socialist Workers Party v Rockefeller, 400 US 806. The U.S. Supreme Court summarily affirmed this ruling, which means that it is binding on the entire country. Nevertheless, the lower federal courts in Alabama upheld the state’s policy. The Alabama Libertarian Party will be asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. All courts outside Alabama that have considered a case like this have always ruled that the list must be given to the minor party or independent candidate who had sued. There is a Circuit split with the Second Circuit, which always helps to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case.
COFOE gets all its income from persons who contribute to COFOE. COFOE thanks everyone who has contributed over the years. COFOE was founded in 1985 and is a loose coalition of most of the nation’s nationally-organized parties, plus other organizations that support ballot access.