Georgia Files Reply Brief in Ballot Access Case

Posted on by December 10, 2021
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On December 10, the Georgia Secretary of State filed this reply brief in the Eleventh Circuit in Cowen v Raffensperger, 21-13199. This is the Libertarian Party case against the 5% petition for district and county partisan office. The U.S. District Court had struck the law down.

The state’s brief is deceptive when it says that when the Libertarian Party once made a strong effort to qualify a U.S. House candidate, it almost succeeded. The state fails to say that in that instance, the petition had been lowered to 3%, for 2002 only, due to late redistricting. The state also says no other Libertarian ever made a truly serious effort to try to meet the 5% petition requirement for U.S. House, but the state fails to mention several other petitioning candidates who did make a very strong effort, yet still failed. These instances are mentioned in the Libertarian Party’s brief.

Kansas City Star Carries Criticism of Top-Four Initiative by Larry Bradley, a Supporter of Ranked Choice Voting

Posted on by December 10, 2021
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The Kansas City Star has this op-ed by Larry R. Bradley about the initiative for a top-four system currently circulating in Missouri. Bradley supports ranked choice voting, but he criticizes the initiative, both because it eliminates the ability of parties to have nominees, and also because it seems obvious that if ranked choice voting is so good, it should be used in primaries as well as general elections.

Bradley does not mention another flaw in the initiative, which is that it makes it almost impossible for a third party to become or remain ballot-qualified. This is because if parties don’t have nominees (except for president), they can’t meet the vote test, except for president. Currently the typical minor party that gets on the ballot in Missouri is able to remain on, because it isn’t that difficult for a minor party to poll 2% for one of the lesser statewide races, such as Auditor or Treasurer. But under the initiative, the only office for which the vote test would still work is president, and it’s extremely difficult for minor parties to poll 2% for president. The Libertarian Party has only done it once (2016). The Green Party has only done it once (2000). The Constitution Party has never done it.

Texas Libertarian Party Files Another Lawsuit Against Filing Fees that are Imposed on Candidates Seeking a Convention Nomination

Posted on by December 10, 2021
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On December 1, the Texas Libertarian Party filed a new lawsuit against the law that requires candidates seeking a convention nomination to pay a filing fee. Bilyeu v Scott, w.d., 1:21cv-1089. The party already has an earlier federal lawsuit pending against the old filing fee law, and it has a lawsuit in state court against the old law as well. The old law was ambiguous and did not make clear whether the filing fee had to be paid by convention nominees, or persons merely seeking a convention nomination. The new law says explicitly even persons seeking a convention nomination must pay the fee. Here is the Complaint.

The Complaint explains how irrational it is to require members of parties that nominate by convention to pay filing fees. Filing fees for parties that nominate by primary are rational; they keep the primary ballots from being too crowded. But that rationale doesn’t relate to parties that nominate by convention.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman, who already has the older federal ballot access case.

New York City Council Passes Bill to Let Non-Citizen Residents Vote in Elections for City Office

Posted on by December 10, 2021
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On December 9, the New York city council passed a bill to let non-citizen adult residents vote in elections for city office. Although fourteen other cities in the U.S. allow non-citizens to vote in at least some local elections, New York city is the first place to allow adult resident non-citizens to vote in a partisan election.

Although Mayor Bill de Blasio has not yet signed the bill, he has said that he will not veto it. Some city council members who oppose the idea plan to sue, arguing that the measure violates the New York state constitution, which is silent on that issue. Here is a Ballotpedia article about cities in the U.S. that allow non-citizens to vote. The article is very comprehensive and has information about the state constitutions of all states that relate to the issue.

Assuming the measure goes into effect, it will be interesting to see the voter enrollement statistics for non-citizens. Obviously there will need to be a separate voter registration list for non-citizens, because they still won’t be able to vote in federal and state elections, so the two lists must be kept separate.