The Yonkers Times has this op-ed by a member of the SAM Party, relating how a feud between Governor Andrew Cuomo with the Working Families Party had the indirect result of the SAM, Green, Libertarian, and Independence Parties losing their qualified status. Oddly enough, the on-line version of the story doesn’t seem to reveal the name of the author.
Arkansas State Senator Breanne Davis (R-Russellville) has introduced SB 614. It makes it illegal for out-of-state circulators to work on Arkansas initiatives.
Arkansas is in the Eighth Circuit. The Eighth Circuit is the only circuit that has ever upheld a ban on out-of-state circulators. It did so in a North Dakota case in 1999. However, so many other courts have ruled the other way, the Eighth Circuit opinion, Initiative & Referendum Institute v Jaeger, is widely regarded as having been wrongly decided. A U.S. District Court in Nebraska even struck down Nebraska’s ban a few years ago, and Nebraska is in the Eighth Circuit.
Circuits have ruled against out-of-state bans are the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth. A similar case is pending in the First District, from Maine.
On April 1, independent U.S. House candidate David Gill filed a four-page notice with the U.S. District Court in Illinois, which is handling his case against the Illinois 5% petition for independent candidates for U.S. House. The notice tells the court that on March 29, the Georgia 5% petition requirement for independent candidates for U.S. House was struck down. Therefore, as the notice explains, Illinois now has the nation’s most severe petition requirement for U.S. House.
The Illinois case is Gill v Scholz, c.d., 3:16cv-3221.
Andrew Yang submitted 9,400 signatures to be on the New York city Democratic primary ballot for Mayor. See this story. The requirement this year is 2,250. Thanks to Michael Schaefer for the link.
The Nevada Independent has this article about SB 292, the Nevada bill to double the number of signatures for a new party from 13,551 to 27,102. The article uses more space to discuss the part of the bill that adds a straight-ticket device, but has a good account of the testimony opposing the petition change. Thanks to Steve Kamp for the link.
