On September 9, U.S. District Court Judge Irene Berger refused to combine Kanye West’s ballot access case with Marshall Wilson’s case. Kanye v Warner, s.d., 2:20cv-570. Here is her 3-page order.
Marshall Wilson’s case involves petitioning relief due to the health crisis. Kanye West’s case involves due process, specifically if a candidate whose petition is rejected for not having enough valid signatures must be given a chance to double-check the work of the election officials who rejected it.
Shaun McCutcheon, a wealthy individual who lives in Alabama, declared on May 7, 2020, that he was seeking the Libertarian Party presidential nomination. He put $65,000 of his own funds in his own campaign account. The Libertarian Party nominated in late May 2020, and did not nominate McCutcheon. McCutcheon still had $50,000 unspent campaign funds in his own account. He asked the Federal Election Commission if he could legally transfer that money to the Libertarian National Committee.
The FEC refused to answer his request, citing a lack of a quorum. Federal Law requires the FEC to issue such advisory opinions. On September 4, McCutcheon filed a federal lawsuit against the FEC, requesting that the court either force the FEC to answer his question, or for the judge to answer it instead. Here is the Complaint.
McCutcheon points out that Michael Bloomberg also had a short-lived quest in 2020 for the Democratic nomination. After Bloomberg dropped out of the Democratic race, he donated $18,000,000 of his own campaign funds to the Democratic National Committee. No FEC enforcement was taken against Bloomberg for that donation, even though federal law doesn’t permit individuals to donate more than $37,000 in any calendar year to the general treasury of an FEC-recognized national committee. McCutcheon wants to know if Bloomberg’s donation was legal or not. If the answer is that it is legal, then McCutcheon will feel legally free to make his $50,000 donation to the Libertarian National Committee.
The Rhode Island Secretary of State’s office says Rocky De La Fuente now has enough valid signatures to be on the ballot as the presidential nominee of the Alliance Party.
On September 7, the New York Times ran an obituary for Charlotta Bass, who was the Progressive Party’s vice-presidential nominee in 1952, and the first African-American woman to be on the ballot anywhere for vice-president. The New York Times has recently been running belated obituaries for people who did not get a Times obituary when they died, but the newspaper now believes that they should have had such obituaries.
Bass died April 12, 1969. Thanks to Irv Sutley for the link.
An earlier version of this post erroneously stated that the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court had removed Howie Hawkins from the Pennsylvania ballot. Actually there is no court opinion yet. It will be released on September 9, Wednesday. I mistakenly confused the brief of the objectors with the opinion. Thanks to the commenters who figured this out. I really get help from commenters!
