On July 15, the Oregon Secretary of State, Bev Clarno, asked the Ninth Circuit to issue a stay in People Not Politicians v Clarno, 20-35630. The U.S. District Court had ordered substantial ballot access relief for statewide Oregon initiatives. The Ninth Circuit asked the Secretary to file her brief by July 17, and any reply is due July 20.
On July 16, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene in the Florida ex-felon voter registration case. Rick Hasen explains this news here. The vote was 6-3. Justices Sonya Sotomayor dissented and her dissent is also signed by Justices Ruth Ginsburg and Elena Kagan.
On July 13, U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker denied the Maine Libertarian Party’s request for rehearing, in its lawsuit over the definition of a qualified party. But he did write that the existing law has severe constitutional problems. Here is his order. Baines v Dunlap, 1:19cv-509. In the meantime, the Libertarian Party’s presidential petition has approximately 2,500 signatures. The requirement is 4,000, due July 25. The only qualified parties in Maine are the Republican, Democratic, and Green Parties.
On July 13, the Florida Secretary of State filed this brief in Independent Party of Florida v Lee, 20-12107. This is the case over the Florida law that a ballot-qualified party can’t be on for president unless (1) it is recognized as a national committee by the Federal Election Commission; or (2) that it submit 132,781 signatures by July 15.
The U.S. District Court had felt that the FEC provision probably violates equal protection, but that the alternate signature requirement is constitutional, even though in 2016 the Eleventh Circuit had struck down Georgia’s presidential petition of approximately 56,000. The U.S. District Court had said the Georgia case is different because Georgia requires the signatures to be gathered in six months, whereas Florida gives unlimited time to collect the signatures.
The case was brought by the Independent Party and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, both of which are ballot-qualified in Florida. The state’s brief claims that neither party has ever placed nominees for any other office (besides president) on the ballot. This is not true. The Independent Party had two nominees for state legislature on the ballot in 2012, and they did very well. Nancy Argenziano received 42.0% for state representative, 34th district; Kerry Babb received 32.7% for state rep, 78th district.
On July 15, the Maine Secretary of State said the Republican referendum petition to stop ranked-choice voting for president failed to obtain enough signatures. See this story. The Secretary of State says the petition needed another 1,600 valid signatures.
Assuming the Secretary of State’s decision is not successfully challenged, this means Maine will use ranked-choice voting for president in November 2020. This will be the first time in U.S. history that any state has used ranked-choice voting in a presidential general election. If the petition had received enough valid signatures, then the voters would have voted again on whether to use ranked-choice voting (for president) in November 2020, but in the meantime it could not be used.
