On June 17, the New York State Senate unanimously passed S6374, which sets the date for the presidential primary, and also the procedures for how candidates get on the ballot. Democratic presidential candidates need 5,000 signatures. Candidates running in the primaries of other parties don’t need any signatures, if they are recognized candidates.
The 2019 session of the Arizona legislature moved the petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties from February of an election year, to November of the year before an election. Ballot Access News had previously reported that the bill to do this, SB 1154, had been defeated. It had been defeated in the House, on May 2, 2019.
But, unknown to BAN until today, on May 14 the House reconsidered the bill and passed it. It was signed into law on May 22. The new law says the party petition is due 250 days before the primary. The bill also moves the primary from late August to early August. The 2020 primary will be on August 4. Calculating the date that is 250 days before the primary shows that the deadline will be November 28.
Petition deadlines for newly-qualifying parties that are too early are unconstitutional. Deadlines for new party petitions, or petitions for the nominees of unqualified parties, for office other than President, have been struck down or enjoined in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Tennessee.
However, in 2014, when the Green Party sued Arizona over its February petition deadline, the Ninth Circuit rejected the lawsuit because the party did not present any evidence of how the early deadline had injured its petition. If the Green Party brings a new lawsuit against the new deadline, it will need to show how the early deadline injures its petitioning effort. Generally such lawsuits show that it is difficult to raise enough money in an odd year to hire paid circulators, and it is also difficult to motivate volunteer petitioners in an odd year. Most people do not get excited about political activism until the election year itself. Thanks to Haryaksha Gregor Knauer for the news about the new law.
On June 12, the Green Party of Pima County, Arizona, filed a lawsuit in state Superior Court in Pima County, to regain its status as a qualified party within the city of Tucson. Tucson is the only city in Arizona with partisan elections for city offices, and is electing a Mayor in November 2019.
Arizona law says that when a previously unqualified party submits a petition, it is then entitled to be recognized for two elections. The Green Party submitted a petition to be recognized in Tucson in 2017, and was on the ballot. But now the city says that the party is not recognized for the 2019 city election.
The Green Party is not on the Arizona ballot for federal or state office at this time. Arizona is a state that lets a party that is not qualified statewide to still be qualified in just part of the state, if it petitions within that portion of the state.
The case has a hearing on July 1 at 11 a.m. in Tucson.
Both sides have submitted briefs in support of summary judgment, in Cowen v Raffensperger, n.d., 1:17cv-4660, the Georgia ballot access case for non-major party candidates for U.S. House. Use the links below to easily read each side’s brief.
Here is the Libertarian Party’s brief, 46 pages long.
Here is the state’s brief, 34 pages long.
On June 17, the Maine House defeated LD 816, the National Popular Vote Plan bill. See this story. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
