The New York Law Journal has this article about legal flaws in the New York Campaign Finance Commission’s work. That work, which has the force of law if the legislature leaves it alone, makes it far more difficult for minor parties and independent candidates to get on the ballot and for parties to obtain and keep qualified party status. Thanks to Joe Burns for the link.
UPDATE: also see this story.
On December 3, the Florida Supreme Court heard arguments in Advisory Opinion to the Attorney General, SC19-2505. Here is a news story about the hearing. The issue is whether the top-two initiative should be on the November 2020 ballot. It only applies to state and local partisan office, not Congress.
The Oklahoma Election Board web page has this running tally for presidential primary filings. The letters “M” and “T” besides each name indicates whether the candidate filed Monday or Tuesday. Filing ends on Wednesday, December 4.
Three parties are entitled to a presidential primary, but probably no candidate will file in the Libertarian presidential primary. Oklahoma has never held a minor party presidential primary before; in the past, when the Libertarian Party did successfully petition in Oklahoma, it didn’t finish the petition drive early enough to qualify for a presidential primary. But for 2020, for the first time ever, the party was already ballot-qualified and didn’t need a petition.
A Libertarian would have needed either a fee of $5,000, or a petition, which would have required signatures of twenty registered Libertarians in U.S. House district one, twelve in district two, nineteen in district three, twenty-one in district four, and twenty-three in district five. The total would be 95. This sounds easy, but it takes advance organization and it does not appear that anyone seeking the nomination did that work.
On December 2, a state trial court in Austin, Texas, enjoined the new Texas requirement that candidates who seek the nomination of a party that nominates by convention must pay a filing fee. Dikeman v Hughs, 11th jud. district, 2019-76841. The decision depends partly on the Texas State Constitution.
This New York Daily News story has the latest on the public reaction to the December 1 report issued by the New York Commission on public funding.
The article quotes Governor Andrew Cuomo as saying that the other two states with disaggregated fusion, Connecticut and South Carolina, require parties to meet a test to remain on the ballot “every year.” Even if he meant every election year, he is still wrong. A qualified party in South Carolina remains on the ballot as long as it runs at least one nominee for some partisan office every four years. And in Connecticut, qualified status is office-by-office. When a party polls 1% or more for an office that is only up every four years (such as Governor), then that qualified status last four years, not two years.
