Stateline, a nonpartisan service of Pew, comments on issues in state government. On July 1, it ran this comprehensive article about ballot access legal changes during 2019 so far.
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On July 1, the Delaware legislature adjourned for the year. The only election law bills that passed in 2019 are the National Popular Vote bill, and a bill authorizing early voting starting in 2022 (although the Governor hasn’t yet signed that bill, HB 38).
Bills that failed to pass include a requirement that presidential candidates reveal their income tax returns, and a bill that would have moved the deadline for new parties to get on the ballot from August to March.
On July 1, the Eighth Circuit issued an eight-page opinion in Moore v Thurston, 18-1382. This is the case filed in 2014 against the Arkansas March deadline for non-presidential candidates. After the case won, the legislature changed the deadline to May 1. But, oddly, they still appealed to the Eighth Circuit, hoping to get a ruling that the U.S. District Court decision should be erased.
The Eighth Circuit declined to erase the U.S. District Court decision. Although the case became moot once the legislature improved the deadline, and although decisions in moot cases are sometimes vacated, in this case the U.S. District Court decision will not be vacated. The Eighth Circuit wrote, “Independent candidates and voters have repeatedly – and successfully – challenged Arkansas’s ballot-access requirements. We thus conclude that the public interest is best served by a substantial body of judicial precedents limiting the burden that those requirements may place on candidates’ and voters’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.”
On June 28, the Ohio Libertarian Party filed this 23-page brief in Libertarian Party of Ohio v Wilhem, s.d., 2:19cv-2501. The case challenges the composition of the Ohio Elections Commission. The law requires that the Commission be composed of three Republicans, three Democrats, and one independent. It is impossible that a member of any other party could ever be on the Commission.
The lawsuit also charges that the Ohio Elections Commission failed to do its duty in 2018, when it allowed gubernatorial debates paid for by corporate contributions to proceed, when there were no objective standards whatsoever for inclusion in those debates. Those debates included only the Republican and Democratic nominees, even though the Libertarian and Green Parties also had gubernatorial candidates on the ballot. This case is unlike the litigation around the Commission on Presidential Debates, because at least the Commission on Presidential Debates has objective standards.
On June 28, the Arkansas Libertarian Party submitted 18,667 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office. The party’s goal is 10,000 valid signatures. The law required 10,000 signatures between 2007 and 2018, but in 2019 the number was raised to 26,745 (3% of the last gubernatorial vote). The party has a lawsuit pending against the new petition requirement. If the party wins the case, it is extremely likely that it will be recognized once again. The hearing was on June 4. The decision on whether to enjoin the new law is expected soon.