This story says that Cincinnati State Technical and Community College recently paid $75,000 to three initiative petitioners, to settle a lawsuit filed by the petitioners. The petitioners were arrested for petitioning without permission. Cincinnati State Technical and Community College is a public institution. Thanks to the Institute for Free Speech for the link.
On August 27, the Erie County, New York Board of Elections will consider whether to put independent candidate Byron Brown on the ballot as a candidate for Mayor. This news story says one of the Board of Elections Commissioners, Jeremy Zellner, wants to hear from the county attorney and counsel to the Board of Elections before commenting on what the board will do. This suggests that at least one commissioner is open to the argument that the May petition deadline is unconstitutional. The New York independent candidate petition deadline was always in August, September, or October, until 2019, when the legislature moved it to May.
Courthouse News Service has this article about the oral argument in the Eleventh circuit on Tuesday, August 24, in Libertarian Party of Alabama v Merrill, 20-13356. This is the case in which the Libertarian Party challenges Alabama’s policy of giving a free list of the registered voters to the Democratic and Republican Parties, but charging approximately $36,000 for parties that are trying to get on the ballot. The Alabama Libertarian Party is trying to get on the 2022 ballot.
The article would have been better if it had told its readers that in 1970, the U.S. Supreme Court summarily affirmed a decision of a 3-judge court from New York, that said if the state gives a free list of the voters to the qualified parties, it must also give the list to unqualified parties that are trying to get on the ballot. That case was Socialist Workers Party v Rockefeller, affirmed, 400 U.S. 806.
The Eleventh Circuit has three states, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Florida gives the list to anyone who asks for it, with no charge. Georgia only charges $50 for its list. These days a single CD can include the entire list, so the cost to provide the list is trivial.
On August 24, the U.S. House passed HR 4, the bill to restore the pre-clearance portion of the federal Voting Rights Act. The vote was 219-212. No Republican voted for the bill. It is known as the “John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021.” Here is the text. Now it goes to the U.S. Senate.
The reason the bill is needed is because the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the old pre-clearance law in Shelby County v Holder, 570 US 529, in 2013.
The old formula for which states needed to have their election laws pre-cleared had not been updated since the 1960’s, which was the basis for the invalidation.
On August 23, the Wyoming Secretary of State filed a notice of appeal in Frank v Buchanan, the U.S. District Court decision that struck down the law barring petitioning or distributing information about election candidates within 300 feet of a polling place. Most states have a 100 foot boundary. The case number in the Tenth Circuit is 21-8060.
