In February 2021, New York city will use ranked-choice voting to hold two special city council elections. This will be the first time New York city has used ranked-choice voting since its regular city council election in November 1945. See this story. Thanks to Richard Grayson for the link.
Seamus Allen has this commentary about how Washington state’s top-two primary works in the real world. The commentary is in The Watchdog, student newspaper for Bellevue College. Thanks to Fairvote for the link.
On August 4, Kanye West withdrew his New Jersey petition. He did so rather than try to defend it against a challenge. See this story. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
On August 3, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg declined to give injunctive relief to the Constitution Party presidential nominee, Don Blankenship, in California. Blankenship v Newsom, n.d., 1:20cv-4479. The law required independent presidential candidates to submit 196,964 signatures. The signatures could only be gathered from mid-April through early August, which is entirely within the time affected by the health crisis.
The order says Blankenship could have tried to qualify his party, because a party gets on the ballot by registering approximately 63,000 registered members, and anyone can register to vote, or change party registration, by going on-line. This ignores the fact that in order to motivate people to change their registration, it is in practice necessary for volunteers or paid workers to go out in public and persuade people to fill out a voter registration form showing party membership in the new party. The decision also faults Blankenship for not trying to petition, but he was not nominated for president until May 2. Here is the eleven-page order.
On August 3, the Eleventh Circuit issued an opinion in Independent Party of Florida v Secretary, 20-12107. It upholds the denial of injunctive relief for the Independent Party, and the Party for Socialism & Liberation, to place their presidential nominees on the ballot. The law says if the party is not recognized by the Federal Election Commission, it must submit a petition of 1% of the number of registered voters, which this year is 132,781 signatures. The Independent Party can’t possibly be recognized by the FEC because the FEC won’t give recognition to parties organized in only one state. However, both plaintiff parties are ballot-qualified in Florida.
The decision’s second sentence is, “Decades ago, we upheld a Florida law that required minor parties to submit a petition signed by 3% of registered voters to access the ballot in statewide elections.” The decision says that because of the 1983 decision in Libertarian Party of Florida v State, 710 F.2d 790, the current petition must be constitutional. The decision also says on page eight, “At that time, Florida offered minor political parties only one path to the ballot: submitting a petition signed by 3% of registered voters.” These sentences are not true. Between 1969 and 1999, Florida allowed unqualified parties to place their presidential nominees on the ballot with a petition of 1% of the registered voters. Florida never had a 3% petition requirement for president. The 1983 lawsuit had no connection to the presidential election. It was filed in 1982 and concerned office other than president. The Libertarian Party had been on the Florida ballot for president in 1980.
Furthermore, the decision fails to mention that in 2017, the Eleventh Circuit struck down Georgia’s 1% petition for president. Nor does it mention the 1985 Eleventh Circuit decision Bergland v Harris, which said that the Georgia 2.5% presidential petition was also likely unconstitutional (the Bergland panel remanded the case back to the U.S. District Court for more fact-finding, but no more preceedings were held because the legislature lowered it to 1%). Ironically, the same judge who wrote the Florida Libertarian decision in 1983 (which did not relate to presidential elections) also wrote Bergland v Harris. Both decisions were written by Judge Paul Roney, who is no longer living.
Another error in the new decision is that the Florida Libertarian Party in 1983 was not ballot-qualified. By contrast, the two plaintiff political parties in the current case, the Independent Party, and the Party for Socialism & Liberation, are ballot-qualified. There is no possible state interest in keeping a ballot-qualified party from nominating a presidential candidate. Florida law already prevents ballot crowding by its requirements for party qualification. There has never been any state, other than Florida starting in 2016, which said that a ballot-qualified party still couldn’t be on the ballot for President unless it submitted a petition. This point is completely absent from the opinion. The opinion is by Judge William Pryor (a Bush Jr. appointee), and signed by Judge Robin Rosenbaum (Obama), and Robert Luck (Trump). The decision only upholds the denail of injunctive relief; the issue of the law’s constitutionality is still to be determined.
