Account of Public Meeting for the New York Commission that is Writing a Public Funding Law

Posted on by October 31, 2019
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The New York State Commission that is charged with writing a proposed law for public funding of campaigns is holding public hearings. On October 30 it met in Buffalo. Here is an interesting newspaper story about the hearing. The headline is misleading. If one reads the article, one finds that the public witnesses were almost entirely against banning fusion.

The quote by Jeremy Zellner, a Democratic Party official who wants to ban fusion, is completely out-of-state. He says half of all election litigation in the United States is in New York. That was true back in the 1980’s, but since then New York state has eased most of the hyper-technical petition rules that caused that litigation. Thanks to Steve Kamp for the link.

Oral Argument Date Set in Montana Green Party Ballot Access Case

Posted on by November 1, 2019
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A U.S. District Court will hear arguments in Montana Green Party v Stapleton, 6:18cv-87, on Thursday, December 11, in Great Falls. This is the case that challenges the unequal distribution requirement for the party petition, and also the March petition deadline. The case arose in 2018, when the Green Party had enough valid signatures statewide on its party petition, but in a few districts did not meet the distribution requirement.

The distribution requirement requires a certain number of signatures in each of 34 of the 100 State House districts. But, oddly, in some districts the number of signatures is as low as 55, while in others it is as high as 150. The Green Party argues that the law, by requiring unequal number of signatures in various districts (even though the districts are of approximate equal population), violates one-person, one-vote.

Here is the last brief, filed by the Green Party on October 25. UPDATE: the original post said the hearing would be December 5, but it has been moved to December 11.

Presidential Primary Candidate Filing Opens in New Hampshire

Posted on by October 30, 2019
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On October 30, presidential primary candidates started filing for the New Hampshire Democratic and Republican presidential primaries. See this story.

Three presidential candidates applied in person on October 30. For the Democratic primary, they were Peter Buttigieg and Mark Stewart Greenstein. For the Republican primary, it was Rocky De La Fuente.

More Details Revealed on New York Proposal for a Tougher Definition of “Political Party”

Posted on by October 30, 2019
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The Gothamist has more details about the efforts of some Democratic Party leaders in New York state to sharply toughen the definition of a qualified party.

None of the press in New York state has yet explained that 39 states have a procedure by which a group can transform itself into a qualified party in advance of any particular election, by doing some task, such as a petition. But New York is not one of those states. There is no party petition procedure in New York.

Courts would be less willing to strike down the New York proposal if there were such a procedure. Taking the Working Families Party as an example, if the vote test were so severe that it went off the ballot, but if New York had such a procedure, it could regain its qualified status quickly. But in New York, it can’t.