On January 24, the Tenth Circuit heard the Colorado case filed by 2016 presidential electors who were unseated when they didn’t initially vote for Hillary Clinton. Baca v Williams, 18-1173. Here is an Associated Press story about the hearing, although it doesn’t say anything about the reaction of the three judges.
The three judges were Mary Beck Briscoe, a Clinton appointee; Carolyn McHugh, an Obama appointee; and Jerome Holmes, a Bush Jr. appointee.
Arkansas State Senator Trent Garner (R-El Dorado) has introduced SB 163. It increases the petition requirement for new or previously unqualified parties in Arkansas from 10,000 signatures, to 3% of the last gubernatorial vote, which would be 26,746 signatures for 2020.
The Arkansas party petition was 3% of the last gubernatorial vote between 1977 and 2006, and in all those years, no group successfully completed the party petition. The Reform Party tried in 1996 and failed, but then went to court and won a lawsuit against that law, and was put on the ballot.
The legislature ignored the 1996 court decision, as to the number of signatures, so in 2006, the Green Party sued and won the new lawsuit. The legislature then lowered the petition requirement to 10,000 signatures. The 2006 case was Green Party of Arkansas v Daniels, 445 F.Supp.2d 1056.
Senator Garner is an attorney, so he should have known about the precedents. The bill has an emergency clause, saying “It is found by the General Assembly that the current laws concerning the signature requirement are insufficient to reflect the will of the voters of Arkansas.” This is an absurd statement, given that the only party that used the petition in 2018 was the Libertarian Party, which polled 2.90% for Governor, and for the two statewide races with no Democrat, polled 27.65% for Auditor and 29.11% for Treasurer. The Libertarian vote for Treasurer was 250,943 votes.
On January 24, the Delaware House passed HB 41, which moves the non-presidential primary from September to April. It also moves the deadline for a new party to qualify from August to early April. Parties get on the Delaware ballot by persuading approximately 700 voters to register into the party. Small parties nominate by convention, not primary, so there is no reason to move the qualification deadline just because the legislature desires an early primary for the major parties. The vote was 36-5.
Alabama’s Secretary of State gives a free list of the state’s registered voters to the qualified parties. But if an unqualified party wants the list, it must pay approximately $34,000. On January 23, the Alabama Libertarian Party filed a lawsuit in federal court, charging that it violates the Constitution for the state to discriminate. Libertarian Party of Alabama v Merrill, m.d., 2:19cv-69.
The case is based on a U.S. Supreme Court summary affirmance in 1970. A 3-judge U.S. District Court ruled that if New York gives a free list to the qualified parties, it must give the list free to parties that are trying to get on the ballot. That case was Socialist Workers Party v Rockefeller, and it was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1970. That means that the exact issue settled in the U.S. District Court is binding on the entire nation.
Since 1970, minor parties and independent candidates have won similar lawsuits against Arizona, California, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Oregon. The Alabama case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Emily C. Marks, a Trump appointee.
The 2020 Alabama petition requirement for minor parties is 51,588 signatures. No party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, has been a qualified party statewide in Alabama since November 2002.
Bills have been introduced in both houses of the New York legislature to make it illegal for a qualified party to have the words “independent” or “independence” in its name. In the Assembly, the bill is sponsored by Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Bronx) and is AB 2600. In the Senate, it is sponsored by Senators James Skoufis and Allesandra Biaggi and is SB 1628. The bill, if enacted, would probably violate the First Amendment.
