The New York Post has this article about the state court decision today that invalidated last year’s hostile changes to ballot access in New York state.
The quote from the Working Families Party at the end is misleading. The Commission that promulgated worse ballot access laws did not ban fusion.
Effective March 12, the U.S. Supreme Court Building is closed to the public. The court did not say whether or not any oral arguments will be postponed, however.
Wyoming House Bill 209 had passed the House, but died in the Senate when it failed to move. It would have changed the law relating to switching parties. Current law lets voters switch parties at the polls on primary day. The bill would have required such switches to have been completed at least 14 days before the primary.
On March 11, Tennessee HB 2580 passed the House Election Campaign Finance Subcommittee on a voice vote. It now goes to the full Local Committee. It cuts the number of signatures for a new party from 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote cast (currently 56,083 signatures) to one-half of 1% (11,216). It also eases the vote test, which is now 5% for any statewide race. The new vote test would be 1% for each particular office, so if a party got 1% for president, then it would be on the ballot automatically for president in the next election. Currently the only state in which the vote test for party retention is office-by-office is Connecticut.
The sponsor is Representative Bud Hulsey (R-Kingsport).
On May 12, the New York Supreme Court, Niagara County, invalidated the hostile ballot access changes made by the Public Campaign Finance Commission late last year. Hurley v Public Campaign Finance & Election Commission, E169547/2019. The order says, “The line between administrative rule-making (which can be delegated) and legislative action (which cannot be delegated) has clearly been transgessed. Here is the eleven-page order.
Last year, the legislature gave the Commission the authority to re-write the definition of a qualified political party. The Commission then raised the vote test for party recognition from 50,000 votes for Governor, to the greater of 130,000 votes for president and governor, or 2% of the total vote cast for that office. The commission also raised the number of signatures for a statewide independent, and the nominee of an unqualified party, from 15,000 signatures, to 45,000 signatures, even though the commission was never even asked to consider the petition requirement.
The lawsuit was filed by the Working Families Party. An identical case, filed by the Conservative Party and called Jastrzemski v Commission, was merged into the Working Families Case. Thanks to Bill Redpath and Jim Riley for this news.
