California Now Has 45 Candidates on Ballot for Governor

Posted on by July 22, 2021
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As a result of the decision in Elder v Weber on July 21, the California Secretary of State has added two more candidates for Governor to the September 14 ballot, Joe Symmon and Kevin Kaul. They had been kept off earlier because they didn’t submit their income tax returns, but the decision says that the law on income tax disclosure does not apply to recall elections, so there was no longer any basis to keep them off the ballot. Also the Secretary of State added Rhonda Furin after determining that her petition did have enough signatures.

Kevin Faulconer, former mayor of San Diego, lost his case on July 21 over his occupational label. The law says only current occupations can be printed on the ballot next to the name of candidates, but Faulconer still tried to persuade a court to list him as the former Mayor of San Diego, but he did not prevail.

Larry Elder Wins Ballot Access Lawsuit

Posted on by July 22, 2021
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On June 21, Larry Elder won a court order in Sacramento Superior Court, putting him on the September 14, 2021 recall ballot. See this story. The case is Elder v Weber, 34-2021-80003682 in Sacramento Superior Court.

The basis for the decision is that the law requiring gubernatorial candidates to submit their income tax returns only applies to primary elections, and the gubernatorial recall is not a primary. This means that none of the other 41 candidates need to have bothered to have submitted their returns. But of course no one could have known that for sure, at the time of the filing deadline.

So far, there is no written decision.

U.S. District Court Enjoins Florida Law Preventing Candidates for Non-Partisan Office from Mentioning their Party

Posted on by July 21, 2021
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On July 14, U.S. District Court Judge M. Casey Rodgers, a Bush Jr. appointee, enjoined the Florida law that makes it illegal for candidates for non-partisan office from mentioning their political party. Hetherington v Madden, n.d., 3:21cv-671. Here is the order.

This is the second Florida election law that has been enjoined by a federal court this month. The first was the severe limit on contributions to an initiative campaign. Thanks to the Institute for Free Speech for the news about the Hetherington case.