Two Democratic voters in Florida have filed a lawsuit in state court, arguing that votes for Bernie Sanders should not be counted in the March 2020 primary because Sanders is not a Democrat. See this story. Thanks to Jeff Becker for the link. The ballots have already been printed or the plaintiffs probably would have argued that his name should be removed.
Nebraska puts presidential primary candidates on the ballot if they are discussed in the news media. On February 25, the Secretary of State released the list of candidates:
Democratic: Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg, Tulsi Gabbard, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, and Elizabeth Warren.
Republican: Donald Trump, Bill Weld
Libertarian: Max Abramson, Dan Behrman, Lincoln Chafee, Jacob Hornberger, Jo Jorgensen, and Adam Kokesh.
On February 18, Virginia HB 1103 passed the Senate Privileges & Elections Committee, 8-5. It had already passed the House. It lets local governments use ranked choice voting for elections for their own officers.
As previously noted, the Alabama Libertarian Party sued the Secretary of State last year over the state’s policy of giving a free list of registered voters to ballot-qualified parties, but not to parties trying to get on the ballot. Libertarian Party of Alabama v Merrill, m.d., 2:19cv-69.
The Secretary of State has deposed all of the party’s plaintiffs, which is expensive. Now the Secretary of State has hired a political science professor and is paying her $300 per hour to defend the state law. However, the professor is only charging $150 per hour for time spent travelling. The professor’s report says that major parties perform useful functions for society, whereas generally minor parties do not.
None of the case law on this issue ever considered the concept that major parties are more useful than minor parties, and all other lawsuits on this issue have resulted in a win for the minor party or independent candidate who filed the case. The U.S. Supreme Court itself summarily affirmed a 3-judge U.S. District Court decision from New York in 1970 that said if the state gives the major parties a free list of the registered voters, it must also provide it for unqualified parties that are about to petition to get on the ballot.
The Secretary of State of Alabama could probably furnish the list of registered voters to the Libertarian Party with virtually no cost to the state whatsoever. Nowadays lists of registered voters are electronic files. But the Secretary of State would rather spend taxpayer dollars than do anything to help the Libertarian Party get on the ballot.
Kim Wyman, Secretary of State of Washington, plans to skip voting in the March presidential primary, according to this story. In the state’s presidential primary, voters must sign in as either Republicans or Democrats, in order to get a ballot. Wyman doesn’t wish to sign in as a Republican even though she was elected with “prefers Republican Party” in the state’s top-two 2016 election. She is up for re-election this year. Thanks to Steve Kamp for the link.
