U.S. SUPREME COURT WEAKENS STATE CONTROL OVER PRESIDENTIAL BALLOT ACCESS On March 4, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Trump v Anderson, 23-719. This is the Colorado ballot access case over whether former President Donald Trump could be … Continue reading
The Florida Secretary of State’s website now lists the Natural Law Party a a qualified party. The name of the party is “Florida Natural Law.” Most counties in Florida don’t print the full party name on the ballot. The Secretary of State abbreviation for the Natural Law Party is “Nat”. The No Labels Party abbreviation is “NLP.”
The state says the Reform Party has not filed to be re-recognized. It had been removed in 2023.
BAN has already covered the pending Missouri state court lawsuit in which the Republican Party seeks to bar a gubernatorial candidate from its August 2024 primary ballot. That case, Missouri Republican Party v Secretary of State, has a hearing May 9.
Another Missouri case, somewhat similar, was filed on March 19, 2024. The Vernon County Republican Committee is suing the county elections office to prevent four candidates from appearing on the primary ballot. They are running for county partisan office. The party wants them off the primary ballot because they refuse to attend a vetting meeting. Vernon County Republican Committee v Lee, circuit court, Vernon County, 24VE-cv-00185.
Recently the Missouri legislature passed a law letting voters indicate their political party on the voter registration form, but there are no consequences for whether a voter fills that out or not. The state doesn’t even tabulate how many people have affiliated with a party. That provision has no part in either of these lawsuits.
Following up on Richard Winger’s post yesterday about this bill, here is a commentary from the Illinois Policy Institute.
And, here is a link to my Chicago Tribune oped of July 10, 2023 on the ballot access barriers to third party and independent candidates in Illinois. All 118 Illinois House and 59 Illinois Senate seats were on the November 2022 ballot in Illinois. There were zero independent and zero third party candidates in all 177 of those elections.
On May 3, Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker signed SB 2412, which eliminates the ability of qualified parties to nominate someone after the primary is over. The bill takes effect immediately.
The original bill had nothing to do with election law, but all of the contents of the original bill were erased on May 1. It passed the legislature in its new form on May 2 and was signed May 3. The bill appears to have been designed to block one particular Republican from being nominated in a legislative election this year.
There are many precedents that states cannot make ballot access more difficult in the middle of the qualification season, including one that was summarily affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, Hudler v Austin, in 1976.
