The Nebraska voter registration form lists all the qualified parties and gives each one its own check box. The Legal Marijuana Now Party is now on the form. At the June 1, 2021 registration tally, it had 194 members. The other June totals are: Republican 595,041; Democratic 359,656; Libertarian 18,101; independent and miscellaneous 269,321. Here is the tally by county.
On June 3, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, signed SB 292. It makes ballot access more difficult for new or previously unqualified parties. It moves the petition deadline to late April, and it imposes a severe distribution requirement.
Nevada has not had a successful petition to qualify a party since 2011. Nevada is one of only five states in which the Green Party presidential nominee did not appear on the ballot in either 2016 nor 2020. The bill seems motivated by a desire by Democrats that the Green Party not appear on the ballot in future elections. The Libertarian and Constitution Parties are already ballot-qualified in Nevada.
The Democratic Party is suing Arizona over ballot-order of candidates in general elections. The Arizona law says the nominees of the party that placed first in the last gubernatorial election (in any particular county) are all listed on the top line. In 2018, the Republican Party nominee for Governor placed first in eleven of Arizona’s fifteen counties, so in 2020 the Republican Party nominees for all offices were listed first in eleven counties. The Democratic Party argues that the Constitution requires a system that gives the Democratic Party an equal chance to be listed first in all counties.
On May 27, the state filed its brief in Mecinas v Hobbs, 20-16301. The state argues on page 58 that “there is no objective or rational way for the courts to define partisan fairness in the context of ballot-order placement.” This is an absurd statement. Obviously if a state either rotates the order of candidates so that each candidate has an equal chance to be listed first in the same number of precincts, or if the state holds a random drawing to determine order, that is objectively fair.
The state also says that lawsuits like this can’t be adjudicated because there are “political”, which is odd, because for fifty years courts have been adjudicating lawsuits on the constitutionality of laws that give some candidates an advantage in ballot ordering.
The Democratic Party injures its own case because it argues that the relief it seeks should not be available to minor party or independent candidates.
The party’s reply brief is due June 18.
On May 25, the Arkansas Libertarian Party submitted this eleven-page affidavit in its ballot access case, Libertarian Party of Arkansas v Thurston, e.d., 4:19cv-214. The affidavit is by party state chair Michael Pakko. The affidavit clearly shows how utterly unreasonable the Arkansas ballot access laws for new and previously unqualified parties. It also shows how damaging the state law, requiring party petitions to be completed in 90 days, is, and how irrational.
Although the Arkansas law has been enjoined, we are still waiting for a decision on its constitutionality. It requires 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, to be submitted in the odd year before election years.
On June 3, U.S. District Court Judge Edmund A. Sargus denied relief to Ohio initiative proponents. Thompson v Governor of Ohio Michael DeWine, s.d., 2:20cv-2129. The case involved difficulty of completing initiative petitions (both statewide and local) during the health crisis. The judge said the case is not moot. He wrote, “The previous year illustrates the difficulty in predicting the high and low tides of a once-in-a-century pandemic. So long as a global pandemic is present, there is a ‘demonstrated possibility’ that Plaintiffs will be again subject to public health orders of the type they challenge in the Complaint.”
But, he said the Sixth Circuit has already ruled that the burden in 2020 for initiative proponents was only “intermediate” and that is not enough to declare the procedures, as applied in a pandemic, unconstitutional. Here is the opinion. Thanks to Mark Brown for the link.
