Howard Schultz Formally Drops out of Presidential Race

Posted on by September 6, 2019
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Howard Schultz has formally dropped out of the presidential race. Although he had suspended his potential independent run several months ago, until now he had not said he won’t run. See this story.

The letter Schultz wrote says there is a danger that the Democratic nomination would not be decided until after independent presidential petitions are due. This is not true. There are only two states with an independent presidential nomination deadline earlier than June, Texas and North Carolina, and both are under court attack. The quote from the Schultz letter is below.

“Unfortunately, election rules in each state and the way this Democratic nomination process has unfolded pose another challenge: It has become more likely that the Democratic nominee will not be known before the deadlines to submit the required number of signatures for an independent to get on the ballot. If I went forward, there is a risk that my name would appear on ballots even if a moderate Democrat wins the nomination, and that is not a risk I am willing to take.”

Of course it is possible that the primaries might end with no clear determination as to who the Democratic nominee would be, but that would be extraordinary. The last primaries are June 2, 2020.

U.S. District Court in Indiana Upholds Disallowing Signatures of Registered Voters Who Show Residence Address Instead of Address of Registration

Posted on by September 5, 2019
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On September 5, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, an Obama appointee, upheld a restrictive practice of Indiana election officials when they validate signatures on petitions. She refused to grant injunctive relief to John Schmitz, an independent candidate for Mayor of Indianapolis in the November 2019 election. He would have had enough valid signatures if the instances at which the voter filled in his or her current address, instead of the address of registration, could have been counted. But she refused to order that those signatures be counted. Here is the 17-page opinion.

The judge said it does bother her that the government petition form says, “Residence Address”, instead of “Voter registration address.” But she said it can be presumed that Indiana voters have read the election code, and they know or ought to know that petitions require the voter registration address. She did not even mention the federal Voting Rights Act, which has language which other courts have used to recognize this type of petition signature. The case is Schmitz v Marion County Board of Elections, s.d., 1:19cv-3314.

New York Governor May Try to Persuade Legislature to Hold a February Presidential Primary Instead of an April One

Posted on by September 5, 2019
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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo still hasn’t signed A8176, which sets the rules for the 2020 presidential primaries and puts them in April. According to this story, he may veto the bill. Then he would hope the legislature would pass a new bill, setting a February presidential primary.

Delaware Appears to Have Given Up Asking U.S. Supreme Court to Overturn Ruling on Letting Independents be State Judges

Posted on by September 6, 2019
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As previously reported, a Third Circuit en banc panel already agreed with lower court rulings striking down a Delaware law that requires judges on most state courts to be registered members of one or the other of the two largest parties. The case had been won by an independent voter who wanted to become a state judge. UPDATE: this post is not accurate, and a cert petition has been filed, called Governor of Delaware v James R. Adams.

Although Delaware asked the U.S. Supreme Court for additional time to file a cert petition, and received additional time, the new due date for Delaware was September 4, 2019, which was yesterday. It appears that the cert petition did not get filed by the deadline. The attorney who had asked for more time is no longer at the phone number that he gave to the court when he asked for more time, so it is not easy to find out from him why no cert petition was filed.

Maine Governor Has Until Friday Night to Act on Presidential Ranked Choice Voting Bill

Posted on by September 5, 2019
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Maine Governor Janet Mills must decide whether to let ranked choice voting apply to the presidential primary and the presidential general election by midnight, Friday night, September 6. The bill is LD 1083. If the bill becomes law, Maine will be the first state in history to use ranked choice voting for a presidential election in November.

Mills is a Democrat, and generally Maine Democratic politicians support ranked choice voting. But she may be bothered by the complicated interplay of ranked choice voting in the Democratic presidential primary, and the fact that Democratic rules already provide proportional delegates to candidates who receive at least 15% of the popular vote.