On March 28, Delaware Governor John C. Carney signed SB 22, the National Popular Vote Plan bill. Delaware is the 14th jurisdiction to have passed the plan.
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Jacob Hornberger, founder of the Future of Freedom Foundation, seems likely to seek the Libertarian Party’s 2020 presidential nomination. He is visiting many, if not all, the Libertarian Party state conventions. He also sought the Libertarian presidential nomination in 2000. On the first ballot he placed third, with 120 votes. Harry Browne received the nomination with 493 votes, and New Hampshire legislator Don Gorman placed second with 166 votes.
Hornberger’s web page is https://jacobforliberty.com. Thanks to Paul Frankel for this news.
The Arkansas Democrat Gazette has this news story about the ballot access lawsuit filed March 28 by the Arkansas Libertarian Party.
David Gill has filed this opening brief in the Seventh Circuit, in Gill v Scholz, 19-1125. This case challenges the Illinois petition requirement for U.S. House, for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties.
On March 26, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued an opinion in Reuther v Delaware County Bureau of Elections, 6 MAP 2018. The Court agreed with the lower court that candidates nominated by write-in vote in primaries are not required to file a Statement of Financial Interests.
This is not a decision on constitutionality. It is an opinion that interprets the Pennsylvania election law, which literally only requires the Statement to be filed by candidates who submit a petition to be on the ballot. Because no Pennsylvania law requires any write-in candidates (in either the primary or general election) to file a petition, the candidate could not be kept off the general election ballot. The plaintiff, Christine Reuther, had won the Republican primary on write-in votes, on May 16, 2017, for the office of Tax Collector of a township.
The Supreme Court wrote, “This Court must honor the unambiguous statutory directive, which applies the fatal defect rule only to those who petition to appear on the ballot, not to write-in candidates. Exclusion of a candidate chosen by a party’s electors is an extreme judicial intervention in the democratic process that should be imposed only when required by unambiguous legislative mandate. Because elections ‘constitute the very warp and woof of democracy’, election laws must be liberally construed to protect a candidate’s right to run for office and the voters’ right to elect a candidate of their choice.”