On May 17, former Louisiana Congressman and Governor Buddy Roemer died at the age of 77. See this obituary. He had been the leading candidate for the presidential nomination of Americans Elect in 2012. Americans Elect was a new party that had placed itself on the ballot in most states during 2011 and early 2012. Its rules said that any registered voter could vote in the party’s private on-line presidential primary, and if any candidate received at least 10,000 votes, the party would nominate whomever placed first. But Roemer only received 6,293 votes, more than anyone else who had sought the nomination, but not enough to be deemed nominated. Therefore Americans Elect had no candidate in the 2012 presidential election and asked state election officials to remove it from the list of qualified parties.

Americans Elect also let its primary voters vote for someone who had not declared for the nomination. Ron Paul received the most votes of any person. He received 9,498 votes, but even if he had met the threshold, he probably would have refused to run.

Thanks to Independent Political Report for the news.

On May 17, out-of-state petitioners filed their Reply Brief in Benezet v Boockvar, 20-2976. This is the case against the Pennsylvania ban on out-of-state circulators for primary petitions. Pennsylvania already permits out-of-state circulators for general election petitions.

In this case, the U.S. District Court had declared the primary election ban unconstitutional, but she wrote the decision so that it only applies to the particular plaintiffs who filed the case. So the appeal, filed by the petitioners, aims to persuade the Third Circuit that the ban is unconstitutional for any future out-of-state circulators.

On May 17, U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) issued a joint letter, endorsing the idea of reviving the federal voting rights Act’s preclearance provision. That idea would require all states to pre-clear election law changes with the U.S. Justice Department.

The preclearance portion of the Federal Voting Rights Act was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court some years ago, on the grounds that the criteria for determining which states had to pre-clear election law changes was arbitrary and depended on very old evidence. The new idea would treat all states equally.

The Voting Rights Act pre-clearance provision, while it was in effect, was somewhat helpful to minor party and independent candidate ballot access. For example, in 1966, the Justice Department refused to pre-clear a Mississippi law that raised the number of signatures for statewide independent candidates from 1,000 to 10,000 signatures. Also in 1982 the Justice Department told Alabama that it could not raise the vote test for parties from zero to 20% if the change was going to be made effective immediately. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the news about the Manchin-Murkowski letter. Those two Senators do not support HR 1, the Democratic Party’s election law bill that injures minor party ballot access.