Noted Alabama Writer Blasts Alabama Ballot Access Laws

Posted on by January 9, 2020
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Joey Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer who lives in Alabama, criticizes Alabama ballot access laws in this column in Alabama Political Reporter. He correctly notes that no statewide minor party or statewide independent petition (except for president, which is easier) has succeeded in Alabama in twenty years. He also points out that the vote test for a party to remain on the ballot is 20%, the highest percentage in the nation.

The Secretary of State of Alabama then wrote a so-called rebuttal, which Alabama Political Reporter published. The Secretary of State makes much of the fact that some independent and minor party petitions for district or county office have succeeded in recent years, but the Secretary of State has nothing to say about statewide petitions.

Kennedy could also have pointed out that Alabama is engaging in a fierce legal fight to retain its law that says only qualified parties can get a free list of the registered voters, whereas unqualified parties who are trying to petition must pay $34,000 for the list. The Alabama Libertarian Party is suing over this law, and the state is requiring that all the plaintiffs undergo time-consuming depositions for a case that should be decided simply on precedent. In 1970 the U.S. Supreme Court summarily affirmed a 3-judge U.S. District Court decision from New York, that states that give a free list of registered voters to qualified parties must also give the list to parties that are petitioning. When other states have been sued on this issue, they have always given in, or put up feeble defense, but not Alabama.

Ohio Libertarian Party Files Brief in Case Challenging Exclusion of Minor Party Members from Serving on Ohio Election Commission

Posted on by January 9, 2020
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On January 9, the Ohio Libertarian Party filed this brief in U.S. District Court in LP of Ohio v Tavares, s.d., 2:19cv-2501. This is the case in which the Libertarian Party challenges the law that says the State Election Commission will be composed of three Democrats, three Republicans, and a seventh member who must be an independent. The Libertarian Party is ballot-qualified in Ohio and yet cannot possibly have a member on the commission.

The brief also asks that once the constitutional issue is determined, that the court rule on whether it was wrong for the Commission to have set up gubernatorial debates in 2018 in which only the Democratic and Republican Party nominees were invited, and without even setting any objective standards for admission to the debate.

Interesting Amicus Curiae Brief Filed in U.S. Supreme Court in Case Over Public Funding of Campaigns

Posted on by January 9, 2020
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Seattle has a type of public funding for city elections called “Democracy Vouchers”. Every voter is given vouchers. The voter can then donate them to his or her favorite candidates, and the candidates can get money to spend on their campaigns by redeeming the vouchers.

The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to declare that the Seattle vouchers program, which is funded by a property tax, violates the First Amendment. On January 9, the American Association of Christian Schools filed an amicus in the case, Elster v City of Seattle, 19-608. The amicus, which argues the Court should strike down the vouchers, explains that even though campaign finance vouchers are unconstitutional, vouchers used to pay educational expenses for children who attend private schools are not unconstitutional. Here is the amicus.